Visions of the Start and the End
by animatedrose
Summary: Just a collection of random events within the Crystal Castle from the viewpoint of my Skeksis OC, skekTah the Schemer. No real linearity. Mostly just drabbles of various things to explore the Dark Crystal world. May contain various AUs and such.
1. Old

Yes, I'm aware that all eighteen Skeksis, urRu, and urSkeks have been revealed now. I've seen them on the official Dark Crystal website. Doesn't mean we still can't have fun with OCs.

skekTah, urTao, and TahTao belong to me. The rest belongs to Jim Henson.

The Dark Crystal: Visions of the Start and the End

Old

The golden being in front of him was almost blinding in its radiance. Tall, almost Gelfling-like in stature, with a large head and long spidery five-fingered hands. Its long, intricately decorated robes refracted golden light, spilling into pools of radiance along the floor. It was a dazzling and beautiful sight.

It made his yellow eyes hurt. He backed away, hissing warningly.

The golden being approached him soundlessly. No footsteps were required when you never had to walk. It reached out with those long hands to frame his beak. Its touch was warm and pleasant, familiar.

He pulled back and hissed, lashing his tail, flashing the claws on his two primary and two vestigial sets of arms. The spines on his tail rose, rattling against his graying skin in a song of danger. He snapped with his toothy beak, hoping to drive the being away.

The being was unfazed. It drifted forward, unafraid of the teeth and claws. He did not doubt that the golden being heard the song of his tail, saw the flash of his claws. The being simply did not care. There was no fear in it.

Only the urge to witness and touch half of itself.

He hissed, trying to back up further, but his hunched form collided with something solid behind him. This world was mostly featureless, a blank gray that made the being before him seem even more bright and beautiful. It made him sick with jealousy.

Yet it also reminded him of the imperfections that caused this being, and others like it, to be thrown from their home and onto Thra two Great Conjunctions ago.

The imperfections that inevitably destroyed them one Great Conjunction later.

The events were hazy in his mind. It was better to forget. This being no longer existed, only a figment in his mind and the mind of his other half. This was just a twisted apparition of what they once were.

Yet the long fingers tracing his beak felt real, gliding along the wrinkled flesh of his cheek that came with 300 trine worth of existence. Fingers darted along the simple lacy collar of his sleeping gown, devoid of his usual opulent layers of robes. He felt small and weak, powerless against this being of pure golden light.

"Two," the golden being said.

"One," he echoed, his voice a broken croak of terror.

He never wanted to be one again. He liked being two. He liked being him. If they became one, he'd stop existing. He'd die. He'd…

"skekTah," the golden being said. "Wake up."

skekTah opened his eyes. The canopy of his bed greeted his vision. The blank gray world and the golden being—TahTao, he'd almost forgotten their name, TahTao—was gone. He was back in his ornate room in the Castle of the Crystal, safe and sound and two.

Skeksis.

Not urSkek.

Skeksis.

He sat up, large hands running over himself. His gray flesh sagged in places from age, hidden by lotions and creams and oils of all kinds supplied to him by the Ornamentalist. His vestigial arms curled tightly against the sides of his curved spine, capable of so little motion now from hundreds of trine worth of disuse. The spines along his back curled down with gravity, the opposite of the straight motion-gifted spines that grew amongst the hairs on his long tail. His eyes were yellowed, his beak was short and curved.

He was himself. skekTah, a Skeksis, an esteemed member of the Skeksis Court, servant of the great Emperor skekSo. Two, not one.

He forced himself not to think about urTao in the Valley of the Stones. The urRu was gone, not here. He hadn't seen the other face to face in anything but dreams since the division 300 trine ago. He had no interest in seeing urTao again either.

The Dying Sun was rising high into the sky, chased by its brothers beneath the horizon. It was early morning, maybe an hour before the morning meal. No doubt the rest were up, with the exception of skekOk the Scroll-Keeper, the only Skeksis who came to events even later than he did.

skekTah rose from bed, fetching his robes. Like the rest, he wore many layers to cover up his aging, wasting body. No Gelfling or Podling would be impressed to see sagging flesh and bulging bellies and vestigial arms. No, they were used to the giant, impressive, powerful, well-dressed lords of the Crystal Castle that they had known and worshipped for 300 trine. No need to show them any different.

Pulling on the heavy layers of black cloth, white cotton, and tanned leather that made up his robes, he reached across his table for his mantle. Covered in curved but sharp spikes and made from the thick, yet blessedly lightweight, black shelling of an ancient crustacean beast from the Silver Sea, skekTah had carved out holes into the spikes to bear shining baubles and hooks and trinkets. Last, he buckled his belt carrying various pouches and tools to his outer vest.

Lightly layering his face with creams to smoothen out his wrinkles and smearing a light oil across his beak to make it shine, skekTah collected his book of notes and his charcoal pencil and headed out of his room.

The faint light of the Dying Sun poured into the windows lining the long halls and large rooms of the castle. It was soft enough not to blind and bright enough to light the way for the hunched Skeksis. skekTah still needed to squint at times between windows to ensure he wouldn't trip over anything. He despised that his vision seemed to be weakening as he increased in age.

Age.

That was a thing that had begun to worry the Skeksis, the Emperor most of all. It was a thing none of them had thought about 300 trine ago after the division occurred and the urRu were driven from the castle. Now, as their flesh wrinkled and sagged, as joints ached and walking grew harder, it became a thought at the forefront of many Skeksis' minds.

skekTah was no exception here. With every lumbering step, his knees and hips sent out bolts of pain. It was not as crippling as skekNa's currently were, thankfully. The hook-handed Skeksis could scarcely get up on his own most mornings now, requiring the help of his allies—skekUng and skekTek—just to get out of bed.

skekTek the Scientist was scouring every available option as a means of reducing the pain in his fellows. Lately, whispers said that the Emperor had even tasked him to find a way to slow their aging down. That would certainly be a useful and celebrated solution.

If it was even found.

skekTah reached the dining hall, where most of the other Skeksis were. The scene before him was familiar. Things rarely changed in the castle.

skekSil the Chamberlain wheedled to the Emperor, reaping the benefits of being the favorite. skekAyuk the Gourmand and skekEkt the Ornamentalist also basked in the attention of being part of the ruling alliance. skekSo the Emperor, though tired, carried his voice with the strength of a creature who had ruled successfully and carefully for 300 trine. Nobody had dared to try usurping him after the cracking of the Great Crystal during the division. The Emperor had won every challenge waged against him, whether serious or in jest.

Closer to the dining tables laden with various dishes steaming from the Gourmand's kitchens was skekUng and skekNa, along with skekTek the Scientist. While most Skeksis bore titles, some did not yet do anything notable enough to gain one. skekUng and skekNa were two of these. Association with the Scientist tended to sway public favor into a more positive tone toward them within the court, naturally. Why the three of them had allied together was a rather large mystery, though many believed the Scientist went after skekUng and skekNa for muscle since skekTek was rather scrawny and weak on his own.

Near them was skekZok the Ritual-Master, tailed by skekShod the Treasurer and skekLi the Satirist. Of course skekOk the Scroll-Keeper, a member of skekZok's alliance, was missing. It was surprising to find the Satirist, usually drifting between alliances, sticking around skekZok. The stuffy Ritual-Master rarely tolerated the humorous jokes and pranks that the Satirist tended to pull on those around him. skekTah wondered if there was a deal between them currently.

It would be worth investigating later. skekTah recognized when he was being summoned and moved accordingly.

skekVar the General was waving him over. skekTah moved over to his alliance closer to the far end of the chamber, isolated from the rest. skekSa the Mariner, title-less skekGra, and title-less skekMal were with him. Close by was skekLach the Census Taker, who also drifted between alliances as skekLi did. Today, it appeared he had drifted to skekVar's group rather than skekZok's.

"Note-Taker," skekVar greeted.

That was skekTah's title—Note-Taker. He tended to work in conjunction with skekOk, sometimes even skekLach. Yet he was allied firmly with skekVar, who had nothing to do with his profession.

Early on after the division, skekTah hadn't been part of any alliance at all. He'd seen the rivalries between fellows, like skekUng and skekSil, and decided to not participate. This left him out for a lot of things but opened the castle up to his frequent free roaming. His loyalty lay to the Emperor and the Emperor alone.

Yet having no alliance meant having very few allies. skekLi had been a close companion in those many lonely trine, having never really joined an alliance either. skekOk had tempted him multiple times to join skekZok's alliance and to bring skekLach in with him so that all three were allied together. The rest of the Skeksis paid skekTah little mind, beaks buried in their own business.

It had been skekHak the Machinist who had brought him into an audience with skekVar. The Machinist, forever hidden in his workshop beneath the castle due to a head injury sustained during the division, had befriended the Note-Taker early on in their reign over Thra. Together, they passed information between each other and learned. It had been skekHak who had fashioned most of the baubles and trinkets that now hung from skekTah's mantle, as well as crafting the tools that skekTah fell back on to do the less pleasant parts of his job.

The General, swayed by skekHak, had promptly declared skekTah as part of his alliance. The Note-Taker had argued and threatened at first. It had been many dozen trine before he admitted that remaining alone, even with skekLi's company at times, was a tiresome chore. So skekTah surrendered his self-appointed loner status and became a close ally to the more militaristic members of the Skeksis Court.

It had been strange at first. Most alliances bore similarities in their members. skekSil's alliance brought out the primary necessities of castle life—food, clothing, and politics. skekZok's focused on religion and recordkeeping. skekUng, the most leader-like in skekTek's alliance despite being title-less, tried to focus his own alliance on assisting the Scientist's efforts in the laboratory. skekVar's was primarily based in military and travelling beyond Skarith, the land their castle occupied.

To have a Note-Taker amongst the military and not the recordkeeping alliance was certainly a shock. He'd received strange looks for quite a while from his fellows. skekOk had kept his distance and refused to speak to him for a trine before the rigors of their jobs forced them to reconcile and work together amicably. skekLach, thankfully, had never been an issue for the Note-Taker.

"General," skekTah bowed his head respectfully. skekVar was higher rank and more favored than him, so it was best to show much respect to the larger Skeksis. "You needed me?"

skekVar nodded, mouth furrowing into a frown. "I haven't heard from skekHak in a few days."

skekTah frowned too. He also hadn't heard from the Machinist, though it never usually was a point of worry.

To keep up the illusion that, like poor skekYi, skekHak had died during the division, the Emperor had set up a special system to keep the Machinist alive but undetected by the likes of Aughra. Food was brought down to him by a special group of Podling servants that were heavily monitored by the Gourmand, never leaving the castle or encountering anyone but Skeksis. Their sole job was to keep the Machinist fed, nothing else.

"Have you spoken with the Gourmand? Or the Podlings that visit skekHak?" skekTah asked.

"Yes and yes. skekAyuk hasn't seen him and the Podlings can't get into his room. The door is locked," skekVar explained. "skekGra, skekMal, and I went down yesterday to speak with him. We heard nothing."

"Nothing?" skekTah questioned.

"Nothing," the General confirmed. "No machines grinding. No metal being worked. I couldn't even smell anything burning in there. There's no sound, Note-Taker."

No sound wasn't good. skekHak's room was always a place of loud noise and acrid scents. For none of that to permeate those subterranean halls beneath the castle certainly brought up warning bells in skekTah's mind.

"Have you told the Emperor?" skekTah asked.

"Not yet. I thought maybe you could get in and see what was wrong first," skekVar reasoned, eyeing one of the heavy pouches on skekTah's belt. "In case we're overreacting over nothing. The Emperor has enough on his plate right now to be bothered by this."

"Good point," skekTah conceded. "I'll go after the meal and see if anything is wrong. I'll bring a Podling and send it to you if anything is amiss."

skekVar seemed to relax at that. He nodded, a grateful smile curling onto his beak.

A bell rang and the Gourmand shuffled away quickly to the kitchens. Breakfast was ready. Gelfling guards of various clans, mostly the umber-skinned Spriton, brought out steaming dishes of flesh and plants found all over Thra—roasted Nebrie, sweet mintvine, and delicious Crawlies were just some of the delectable dishes. skekAyuk had outdone himself once again.

skekTah gratefully partook in some mintvine. The sweet plant was a personal favorite of the Note-Taker's and worked much like a calming agent on him. With the worrying news about skekHak, the Note-Taker didn't dare withhold himself from indulging in the plant.

He didn't participate in any of the political chatter that engulfed a good portion of the court. The Chamberlain was concerned about the upcoming winter months and the low crop output that some of the Gelfling tribes had brought in. The Ritual-Master brought up the issue of a small rebellion still thriving in the eastern mountains under the influence of Aughra's troublemaking son, Raunip. The Scientist reported about a mixture of fizzgig blood, crystal dust, and Nebrie milk that seemed to take some of the edge off of their joint pains, though no veritable progress was found for any long-lasting pain relief or anti-aging serums.

skekTah regularly finished last during meals, preferring to slowly savor the taste and flavors in respect for skekAyuk. Today was an exception. He rather swiftly inhaled most of his meal, took a fistful of mintvine for later, and vacated the table. He gained a few odd looks for his likely-rude behavior but the Note-Taker did not care. His concern for skekHak, his first true ally, was overwhelming.

He left the dining room and circled the halls around the Crystal Chamber, where the now-dark Great Crystal hung suspended by its own gravity. He did not step into the chamber. There was no need.

Breaking from his path, he went down a series of corridors that began to gradually slope downward until he reached a set of stairs carved into the rock beneath the castle. Being careful not to slip or overbalance himself, skekTah slowly went down them as he descended into the depths of the mountain that the Crystal Castle had been formed from over 1000 trine ago when they were one. The temperature dropped here, away from the light and warmth of the three sun brothers, making skekTah shiver despite the many layers he wore.

He reached a long corridor extending into the darkness. Most required a torch to see down it. Without sunlight, skekTah could use his other unique gift.

The other Skeksis did not bear the spines on their tails that skekTah had. A unique gift, if a dangerous one. skekTah frequently stayed at the back of lines or processions to avoid having his tail tread on and stabbing others' feet with the spines, which rose based on emotions or if pressure was applied to them. So far, nobody knew about his tail.

The other Skeksis also did not have the night vision that skekTah had. Or at least, he had yet to hear of anyone else saying they had such a thing. The world was tinted slightly green as he advanced, his eyes adjusting to the total darkness. He could already see the intricately designed iron door on the other end of the hall, depicting glorious battles and various beasts clashing against armored Skeksis and Gelfling fighting side by side.

skekHak the Machinist's room.

He reached the door and knocked once. The sound reverberated loudly against the stone walls, bouncing around before fading on its way up the stairs. skekTah shifted, pressing his slit of an ear against the cold iron and straining his hearing, listening closely.

No sound, just as skekVar had said.

He knocked twice more, waiting for a minute in-between in a bid to hear anything moving within the room. There was still nothing. He growled before turning to address the Podling.

…Which he had forgotten to grab on his way down…

skekTah growled in frustration. He'd let his concern swallow him so much that he forgot such a critical detail! How foolish he felt now.

Fine! Forget the Podling! He would just go in and check on skekHak himself. He had planned to, anyway. He would just have to make the slow journey back upstairs to deliver his findings to skekVar on his own. That was fine. skekTah was certain he could do this.

He dug through one of his pouches until he pulled out a few dark-colored metal keys. Though he was the Note-Taker, he also served as an impromptu spy and information broker at times. He'd learned the art of metalworking from skekHak a century ago and from it, he managed to fashion keys to get into locked rooms. He had quite a few to get into the rooms of other Skeksis, particularly his allies if they needed to deliver things to one another without being caught by others. skekTah thanked his unremarkable nature and the others' tendency to ignore his presence.

Though the keys had initially been made from a desire to help check up on skekHak.

Ten trine ago, he'd found skekHak collapsed on the floor of his room, barely able to breathe. He'd only gotten into the room back then because skekVar and skekUng had torn out the bolts and hinges in order to collapse the door, it having been locked to keep others out. skekHak liked his privacy.

It had nearly cost the Machinist that day. skekTek had said that if they had come a hour later, skekHak would've died. Back then, nobody was quite sure what had caused skekHak to collapse. Today, age was pinned to blame for the incident.

Shoving the key into the lock, skekTah twisted it and smiled when a sharp click unlocked it. Withdrawing the key and returning it to his pouch, the Skeksis pushed the heavy iron door open and walked in. His night vision painted the scene in the dark room for him.

skekHak's tools were left on a table. Pages were scattered about, on the tables and the floor, in a haphazard manner. Some worked metal sat in buckets of water, cooled into their desired shapes by the temperature change. The melting cauldron had its lid on and still radiated heat, warming the room against the chill of the underground. Most of the objects looked like they hadn't been touched in days, covered in a fine layer of dust.

The low cot in the far corner bore a large lump on it, covered thickly in the faded browns and blacks that marked skekHak's usual decor. skekTah approached the cot warily, straining his ears. Wheezed breaths greeted him, soft but painful-sounding. It made skekTah's heart shoot into his throat.

He reached the cot and moved to pull the blankets—and robes, he noted most of these were skekHak's heavy outer robes—back to reveal skekHak. The other was curled into the best ball that a rickety old Skeksis could manage. The Machinist was shaking, face hidden in his clawed four-fingered hands, beak open to try and drag in more air. He looked far older than the rest of the Skeksis did by a mile, bearing more wrinkles and body pains.

"skekHak," skekTah said gently, grasping a bony shoulder. "skekHak, wake up."

"Huh?" skekHak jolted, joints creaking as he uncurled, only to curl again with a violent shiver. He was drenched in sweat. "What? skekTah?"

"You've been down here for days. The Podlings couldn't get in. Why did you lock the door?" skekTah asked, going slow to avoid swamping his fellow with too many questions. "skekVar came down a few times and said you never answered."

"He did? When? I…" skekHak blinked, eyes straining through his eye coverings. "I… skekTah, I can't…"

"Can't what? skekHak, are you hurting?" skekTah asked, ready to haul the Machinist up and carry him to skekTek's laboratory if he needed to, aching limbs be damned.

skekHak nodded, waving skekTah away weakly when the Note-Taker moved to help him up. "No point. Over. Done for. Just go."

"What are you talking about? skekHak, get up," skekTah urged, again trying to pull skekHak from bed. "Get up. I'm taking you to skekTek. He'll help you."

"Can't help me. Too late. Should've known. We all should've known. Ten trine. First clue. Can't, can't, can't!" skekHak choked, buried his beak in his hands with a ragged gasp.

"skekHak, what are you talking about?" skekTah demanded. He wished he had a Podling here. He didn't want to leave the Machinist alone now, not with him like this. "skekHak, for the love of Thra, get up!"

"Can't walk. Can't move," skekHak said.

"skekHa—"

"skekTah, what's going on?"

The Note-Taker spun in relief, overjoyed to hear another voice, however gruff and harsh it sounded. Standing in the lit doorway of skekHak's room was skekMal, looking baffled. The other Skeksis moved deeper into the room, freezing when he saw skekHak.

"Go and get skekTek! skekHak says something is wrong with him but he won't tell me," skekTah begged. "He says he can't walk or move! Hurry!"

skekMal wasted no time, leaving the room and lumbering up the stairs as fast as his aching legs would go. He didn't just tell skekTek. He screeched it into the Crystal Chamber where the rest were. They echoed his message to every corner of the castle until it had reached every Skeksis ear. When skekMal returned to the dark room below the castle, torch in hand, he was followed by the rest of the court.

skekTah had to squint until his night vision was replaced with his regular vision. skekHak had thrashed and cried out when skekMal left. Now the Machinist lay flat on his back, breathing labored, sweat peppering his wrinkled face. The Note-Taker had dabbed it away with the sleeve of his outermost robe but the fluid refused to stop leaking from skekHak's skin.

He stepped aside, making way for the Scientist and the Emperor. skekTek examined every inch of the ailing Machinist, poking and prodding and judging skekHak's reactions based on tests performed on aging Gelfling and Podlings. His expression was grim when he turned to face the rest of the court.

"He's dying," skekTek said.

Death was something the Skeksis had witnessed many times before. It happened to Gelfling and Podlings, to fizzgigs and other creatures. Plants died frequently. Most of their meals were alive before skekAyuk received them to make their meals, butchering the beasts to make a delectable assortment of dishes from their remains.

The only Skeksis death to occur was skekYi and that was 300 trine ago during the division. His urRu counterpart had plunged down the shaft beneath the Great Crystal and was incinerated in the lava far below. skekYi had combusted in front of them. There hadn't even been a scream.

But this was different. It was no fast death. This was from age. 300 trine and skekHak was dying because of it. There was no cure and no relief. Just death.

"Fix him!" skekVar suddenly roared, shaking the Scientist.

"I-I can't! There's no cure! It happens to everything!" skekTek squawked.

"Then we will die like this too?!" skekVar demanded.

That sent a chill through the rest. All eyes fell on skekHak, whose breathing suddenly turned shallow. His wretched frame, hidden only by a gray gown, looked so thin and small without all of his robes. The wrinkles on his face, the way the skin seemed to cling and accentuate every bone, every vein, it was all so horrible.

Nobody wanted that. Not age. Not death. Never. Not like this. It couldn't end like this.

skekTah slowly inched forward, grasping one of those bony hands in both of his. He couldn't look at his own hands now, knowing they looked similar to skekHak's. If he looked in a mirror tomorrow, without all of his fancy robes, would he look just like skekHak did now?

skekHak was saying something but it was so soft that it was borderline inaudible. The Note-Taker moved closer, straining his ears. skekHak's yellow eyes swiveled to him and his beak opened to repeat the message.

A croak escaped the Machinist's throat before he went limp. The fingers lost their grip on skekTah's hands. Breath ceased to come.

skekTah quickly jumped back, releasing skekHak's hand when the dead Skeksis' beak suddenly cracked, splitting in two. The rest of the court stood back, eyes wide, fanged jaws gaping, as they watched skekHak crumble into sour gray dust and empty robes.

skekHak was gone.

Panic brewed. skekZok, keeper of rituals and ceremonies, moved to gently collect the remains. The Emperor led the procession slowly up the stairs into the throne room. While the Ritual-Master returned to his own chambers to formulate how best to honor their fallen brother, the rest of the court let their fears fly loose to the open air.

"skekHak is dead!"

"We're going to die like that too!"

"Why must we, lords of the crystal, be afflicted with this condition?"

"skekTek, do something!"

"Emperor, there must be a cure!"

"SILENCE!"

The Emperor's bellow silenced the rest. He turned, swinging his scepter like a sword. His gaze landed on the Scientist, who cowered on trembling legs.

"We will not need to panic! skekTek is working exclusively on a cure for this!" skekSo declared. "This will be cured! Have no fear! Another will not die from age as skekHak did under my rule! This, I decree!"

The Emperor punctuated this with a heavy slam of his scepter against the floor.

skekTek quickly raced away to put aside the rest of his research. He had been tasked to cure this aging condition and he could not afford to fail under the Emperor's decree. If another died under the Emperor's rule like this, the Scientist would inevitably be brought down with him.

skekTah had lingered behind the rest of the pack, still in shock. Only minutes ago, skekHak had been speaking to him, touching him. Now…skekHak was dead…

And urHom along with him…

Did urTao mourn urHom, as skekTah was mourning skekHak right now? Did emotional states carry over the same way pain did? Somehow, he really hoped so.

He barely registered skekVar patting his shoulder, muttering condolences for the other's death. skekTah didn't really register anything. The Note-Taker felt numb.

It was an emotion that the future Schemer would learn to take in stride, several hundred trine from then…


	2. Beginning

Part one of the three part thingie I wrote for how the whole urSkek-into-Skeksis-and-urRu thing occurred. This is just my take on it.

I do not have the Creation Myths books so this will likely be nothing like what's depicted there unless I can somehow predict it accurately without any errors. I only have a few images I could dredge up on Google Images of pages from those books. Most of this is just what I've written and imagined myself.

TahTao belongs to me. No stealing!  
Everything else belongs to Jim Henson.

Beginning

TahTao wanted to scream.

No matter how hard he tried to focus on his studies, he couldn't get SoSu's words out of his mind. The erratic manner of the other's words had clung to him since he first heard the older urSkek speak. The chaotic form of that speech cut through the serenity and peace of mind that TahTao desperately tried to cling to.

For the longest time, TahTao had tried to ignore the stirrings in his breast. The beginnings of something…not normal. He had brought it up once and was told to bury himself in his studies, to ignore it. Persistence was the key to eradicating such impurities from his person. So TahTao did so, studying extensively for many long years.

But the stirring did not go away. It grew, just as persistent to be recognized as he was to ignore it.

TahTao found himself shaking some days, crumpling pages of notes. He'd felt the urge to rip them, destroy the texts he'd slaved over. When his teachers paid more attention to his fellows' writings, TahTao wanted to roar in rage.

Rage. Anger. Wrath.

All foreign. Impure. Unwanted.

And TahTao had no clue how to rid himself of it.

Then he'd heard SoSu speak. He and many others had felt these stirrings. TahTao was not alone in these strange, destructive urges. These negative emotions. All things that went against what made urSkek superior to other beings.

The meeting was abruptly broken up by other urSkek and SoSu fled. TahTao managed to return home without being discovered. He buried himself almost to drowning in reports and texts and studies.

Yet SoSu's words rang clearly in his mind for many days to come.

 _"_ _These stirrings exist in all urSkek. Why must we deny them? It is to deny a piece of ourselves. It is a self-destruction of what makes us alive. Must we recoil from things that other beings experience? I say we should not. If we are to remain superior, we must be prepared to embrace all of ourselves. These stirrings cannot be considered impure, not if we all suffer from them. I say we should embrace these stirrings the same as we do our studies! Self-denial is what is impure!"_

TahTao tried to forget, he truly did. He finished up his reports. He studied. He wrote his texts and notes and kept his fellows on task. Yet his mind forever wandered into the stirrings in his breast, the thoughts culminating in his mind, planted there to sprout by SoSu's speech.

He devised a test, all alone in his home. He created copies of reports that had brought up anger in him, that made the stirrings grow strongest. Texts of his that had been ignored in favor of others' works. Studies that had made him see red. He copied them all and, once he was locked up in his home safely, he set them up and let his wall of self-denial fall.

TahTao could not recall most of that quiet evening. Everything became a blur of paper and white-hot emotion. Things were torn and broken. His throat stung from what he could only assume was screaming. When he finally came back to his senses, the main room of his abode was a place of total destruction.

The following morning, he abandoned his tasks and studies. He sought out SoSu.

It was difficult. SoSu had fallen into hiding to avoid being captured by his fellows. Talks of dissent and banishment had begun to spread. Neither of these things had ever happened before in his lifetime. The stirrings had apparently never been acted upon in such a manner in all of urSkek existence. The leaders of their kind were working to eradicate the main cause of this sudden explosion of impurity among their ranks.

It frightened TahTao but he persisted in his search. He was careful, never mentioning the target of his hunt to any other urSkek. He didn't want to end up leading a capturing squad to the older urSkek. TahTao just wanted to find him.

Instead, SoSu found TahTao.

TahTao had given up his search that day and returned home, only to find his home unlocked. Not that that was unusual, urSkek homes were normally never locked…but TahTao had locked his to cover up the destruction in his main room. Somebody had unlocked and entered his home. Terrified, he scrambled for excuses and entered his home with lies on his tongue.

They all died when he saw a few urSkek in his main room. At the center, admiring the shredded paper and broken artifacts, was SoSu. The entourage regarded TahTao with wonder.

"You did this?" SoSu asked.

"Yes," TahTao admitted with a feeble nod.

"None of us have ever let our stirrings lose to this extent," SoSu stated.

"I was just testing it. I never meant to do this much," TahTao explained.

"This is amazing," another urSkek—TekTih, TahTao realized after a moment. "I've tested it but never against our studies. Perhaps these stirrings grew because of our endless monotony and the continuous bottling of those stirrings."

"You have done well," SoSu reassured, touching TahTao's shoulder. "TahTao, I have a favor I must ask of you."

"What?" TahTao asked.

"Join us at our next counsel. We will take this before the public, show them irrefutable proof of these stirrings," SoSu preached. "Show them that this is what could occur if we continue with our system of self-denial."

"It is a good thing these were mere copies and replicas, SoSu," another urSkek, ZokZah, noted. "If these had been the originals…"

"Indeed. This will add a driving point to our proposal," SoSu agreed. "TahTao, will you join us? This would be most helpful to our cause."

A system where he wouldn't have to ignore this stirring in his breast, to drown the negative thoughts buzzing in his mind. It was certainly appealing. Ignorance in and of itself was tiresome. TahTao could certainly see the benefits of this new system.

"I will."

And so, fifty strong, SoSu led his campaign to their leaders and preached of their findings. TahTao was nervous about presenting his own evidence but did so without question at SoSu's request. The rest of the time, TahTao watched faces and expressions.

He didn't like what he saw. Their leaders did not look pleased in the slightest.

"SoSu, you come before us today to preach your evidence of these impurities. I see not how they can benefit, only destroy. You show us the destruction these stirrings have caused. How will letting these control us, as they do other beings, help us? I see no benefit to this. I only see a force of reckoning destruction."

"You would have us languish in self-denial then?" SoSu challenged.

"I would have us continue in our dogged persistence of a pure, unmarred life of study. You, SoSu, threaten this. I have cast a vote among the council as to your fate. Banishment has been decided for you and those that remain firm in these impure beliefs of yours."

TahTao cowered instantly. Banishment. A fate that had not befallen any urSkek in his lifetime. To be sent through the Great Crystal to whatever lay beyond it. Nobody knew quite what it led to. Only that it was used as punishment in the most dire of events.

These stirrings were now considered such a dire event to their leaders.

"You would banish us for acting on what emotions are within us? This is simply how we are. You cannot punish us for that!" SoSu roared.

"And yet, we must. Your teachings threaten to spread such impurity among our ranks. Youthful, innocent minds will be corrupted irreparably by your words, SoSu. I am sorry. Those beneath you that are willing to fall back on our system of belief and order will be exempt from this punishment. We will not punish them for being swayed by the words of you, our fallen brother."

What were once fifty rapidly diminished. SoSu's words were not enough to hold together the congregation he had gathered. Soon, there were only nineteen left. TahTao swung perilously between staying and leaving.

Was ignoring these stirring really so bad? Or was self-denial itself the enemy?

The image of that destructive force that swallowed him in his main room returned to him. TahTao shook his head. No, he could not continue to ignore that part of himself. Not if the end result was that. He simply could not do it.

SoSu's gaze met his, drifting to each of the ones that had remained with him. Just eighteen left to follow the older urSkek. TahTao felt bitter at those that left. Would they truly be satisfied with self-denial? Had his evidence not been enough to keep them on SoSu's side?

Was fear truly that powerful?

"The nineteen of you persist in your false claim, your impurity. So be it. You are banished. You will be led to the Great Crystal and shall pass through it. I pray that you will come to see the error of your ways and will one day return to us as whole, pure beings."

SoSu snarled and cursed as they were led to the Great Crystal at the very heart of their world. TahTao looked around in fear. He suddenly regretted his choice. What if they passed through the Great Crystal and died? Was that the fate of the impure?

Anger at their situation welled up in him. Like SoSu, TahTao began to curse and yell. His rage swallowed him. Why must they receive such a fate, such a punishment? Was it wrong to be yourself?

Fine! Kill him then! It was better than denying who he really was!

They were forced to form a circle around the Great Crystal, a giant glowing hunk of crystal that was broad and faceted at the top and tapered to a narrow rounded point at the bottom. It shone magnificently in all its pure, unmarred beauty. TahTao felt sorrow well up in him. To die by something this gorgeous was a travesty.

SoSu's parting words rang in TahTao's head as their leader—for surely that is what SoSu is now, their leader—and all the rest of his companions were blotted out by brilliant light.

"Do not fear! We depart from a world that would see us destroy our very selves in favor of an unmarred, monotonous existence! If our own will not accept us for who we truly are, then we will make a world of our own in another that will accept us! This, I promise you!"

The Great Crystal glowed viciously. The light burned, making TahTao cry out in agony. The world tore away from him as he was pulled into the brilliance of the crystal, severed from the world he had always known.

And when the light died, the Great Crystal's light dulled and vanished all together. A mountain surrounded them, the start of an entirely different world from the one they had come from.

Thra.


	3. Middle

Part two of the three-part intro thing involving my interpretation of how the urSkek became Skeksis and urRu. Next part will contain what pieces I got from the Creation Myths images that I hunted down on Google Images.

TahTao belongs to me. No stealing!  
Everything else belongs to Jim Henson.

Middle

It had been six hundred years—or trine, as Thra's inhabitants called the yearly cycle of time—since they appeared on this new planet. Thra, inhabited by Gelfling and Podlings and other innocent, kind creatures. And Aughra, the mother of Thra, their dear friend.

Thra had been a frightening place at first. Or TahTao had believed so. Maybe it had been his terror at being thrown from their world and into a new one that had him thinking that. Over time, Thra became something tolerable and then, with even more time, a place that TahTao didn't mind calling home.

Only it wasn't home. Thra could never be home.

Upon emerging from Thra's Great Crystal, they healed a burnt Aughra and learned about the planet they were on. SoSu directed them to excavate the Great Crystal and, to protect it from harm, create a castle of lesser crystal blocks around it. Thus their home, the Castle of the Crystal, was built where the mountain that had housed the Great Crystal had stood.

Aughra helped them adapt to life on Thra. The inhabitants were innocent and naïve, though Aughra had taught them some things. With the Great Crystal being Thra's heart and the urSkek protecting it, they became reverent, holy beings after their arrival. There was no part of Thra where their kind light did not shine.

TekTih learned of the Great Conjunction, the event that allowed them to reach Thra through the Great Crystal. The Great Crystal became unusable for transport after their arrival, so any plans to go elsewhere would need to wait until the next Great Conjunction. He and Aughra would vanish for weeks at a time researching the event.

Of course, SoSu did not care to use the Great Crystal again. Guard it, yes. Use it, no. SoSu was satisfied with the world they had come to. Thra was teeming with life but it could use the guidance and wisdom of a higher force. SoSu made the decision that they would be that guiding force and make this world their own.

TahTao learned to enjoy all the sights that Thra had to offer. It was a gorgeous place with many forests and a vast sea. He, along with OkAc and LachSen, traveled between the Gelfling and Podling villages to learn about the world around them. They taught the innocent races new songs and traded knowledge. It was a wondrous system of learning for all parties.

But not everything was good.

The band of nineteen, now free of the oppressive system of their kind, had begun to act out on their suppressed urges and emotions. The results, while at first liberating, over time became frightening. Always, these urges had been unleashed in secret amongst one another. As of late, they had begun to manifest out in public too.

Aggression and rage were the worst of it. SoSu found himself frequently striking out at his companions, his voice rising with anger. TahTao watched many of their fellows resort to physical violence and loud verbal battles. They struggled to hide these from Aughra, afraid of driving her away.

Raunip, Aughra's odd-looking son, on the other hand, had noticed these outbursts. He'd seen. He'd heard. He knew.

It scared TahTao. The repercussions of these outbursts, the results of these stirrings, were not what he'd imagined. He'd envisioned freedom. Instead, he saw destruction and violence. It was terrifying to him.

He missed home.

.o.o.o.o.

"SoSu?"

The older urSkek was atop one of the many crystalline balconies of the castle, overlooking the land of Skarith where the castle had been built. TahTao was so careful with approaching their leader. His cheek still hurt where SoSu's staff had struck him only yesterday during a violent outburst from the other. Though SoSu had apologized profusely, the pain was still there.

The damage had been done.

"You require something, TahTao?" SoSu asked, eyes not diverting from the view.

TahTao carefully drifted close to SoSu's left, though out of range if another strike was aimed at him akin to yesterdays. "Was all of this worth it? Being banished, gaining our freedom from self-denial. Because…"

"You don't think it was worth it now," SoSu guessed.

TahTao reluctantly nodded. "That is indeed my current belief. The end result of this…was not what I had expected or predicted from this."

SoSu sighed, hands resting on the banister. "I believe you raise a valid point. It is one I have thought about for the last one hundred and forty trine."

TahTao lifted his head in surprise. "You have?"

"Yes. I too now believe we may have made an error of judgment," SoSu stated. "None of us had predicted that the resulting torrent of emotional and verbal baggage inside of us would've resulted in so much destruction and violence over such a long period of time. This is not the freedom we had sought out."

"You did what you thought was right," TahTao pointed out, uncomfortable with hearing his elder doubt himself.

"And what I believed was wrong. I have caused harm, the greatest of sins. And not just that but I have hurt one of my own." SoSu's gaze lingered on TahTao's face, no doubt taking in the dulling bruise across the younger's cheek. "This, I cannot accept as our future."

"There must be a way to reduce the effects of this. Or even destroy it," TahTao suggested. "Perhaps TekTih—"

"I have a theory," SoSu interrupted, turning and drifting back into the castle. He stared down at the Great Crystal, suspended by its own gravity at the center of a grand chamber meant to concentrate its power through a shaft in the ceiling. "The Great Crystal channels pure, positive energies at the climax of its power, both here and back home. I have spoken with TekTih and ZokZah about this in great length. I believe that if we can predict when the next Great Conjunction arrives, we can use that awesome power to both eradicate our impurities and return home."

"You think the crystal is that powerful?" TahTao asked.

"If it's anything like ours back home, I believe so. TekTih is working with Aughra to find a way to concentrate the beams of sunlight. Perhaps that will allow its pure energy to destroy the negative energy, the impurities, inside of us."

TahTao couldn't help but smile. To rid himself of these awful stirrings that drove him to yell and break things without thought would be a truly wonderful thing. To go back to being the kind, peaceful urSkek he had once been would be exquisite.

"Have the others agreed to this?" TahTao asked curiously.

"Not yet but with the amount of complaints I have heard, especially from SilSol and UngIm, I believe we will all agree on this," SoSu admitted. "What we had once wanted free…is now draining us of what makes us urSkek. It is very tiring. Perhaps the system of self-denial was the proper solution for this."

"Then we will go home?" TahTao questioned. "What if we are wrong? What if the crystal cannot make us pure?"

"Then we will return home and fall back on self-denial," SoSu said, head lowered. "We will do what we must, no matter the cost. The crystal's light is pure. Surely it will purify us as the one at home is said to be able to."

TahTao felt a shudder run through him. What exactly did SoSu mean by 'no matter what the cost'? The Great Crystal was the heart of Thra. Aughra had told them this many times over. To damage the crystal was to hurt Thra.

Would SoSu really take such a daring chance with something so important?

The image of home lifted his spirits. After six hundred trine, TahTao finally knew what they would be doing. Once TekTih knew when the next Great Conjunction was, they could prepare to go home. These awful stirrings would be eradicated at last.

Perhaps life would go back to normal then.


	4. End

Part three of the three-part drabble of my interpretation about how the urSkek became urRu and Skeksis.

Used images of this event from Creation Myths for some of the text and such. Hopefully it still works.

End

One thousand trine had passed since the Great Conjunction had brought their band of urSkek to Thra. Now, the Great Conjunction had returned for the second time, according to Aughra.

TahTao took the star staff in his hands. TekTih and Aughra had crafted these to help focus the pure energy of the Great Crystal into themselves. This would, hopefully, erase their impurities. Then they would enter the crystal and return home.

That was the plan, as outlined by SoSu almost three hundred trine ago when it was devised.

Now the time had come. The nineteen urSkek drifted in a circle around the Great Crystal. Aughra and her son watched from the sidelines. The three brother suns were almost lined up. Once they were, the plan would fall into place at last.

TahTao could barely contain his excitement. Home, they were going home. All this anger and destruction and violence would finally come to an end. They would be pure and peaceful and return home to their quiet, monotonous lives of study. He would never again complain about his routine or life.

ZokZah called out a count. The suns were almost in position. Star staffs were lifted, held into position.

With a burst of light, the Great Conjunction began.

The Great Crystal became a brilliantly glowing beacon, hot white. The staffs, each studded with a large crystal at the end, took on this same brilliance. TahTao shuddered, feeling heat inside of him. The impurities were being eaten away, erased. He smiled, body being pulled toward the crystal by its own gravity.

He was going to go home.

Someone close by was talking. TahTao pushed away his joy and cracked open his eyes, head tilted from the light. SilSol was a few spots down from him, hunched over and clutching his head. He was talking, hissing, yet TahTao could hear him as if the other was right next to him. Up above, near the open shaft that the sunlight poured in from, Raunip too spoke.

Raunip had had it out for them early on. TahTao did not know why. The misshapen child had set the Gelfling against them at one time and seemed to persist in harassing SilSol, who he had dubbed Dark Heart. Aughra tried again and again to drive her son away, to make him see the cruelty in his actions toward them.

If Raunip recognized what his actions did, he certainly did not care to correct himself.

SilSol spoke louder now, angrier now. Others turned to watch him, distracted from the purifying light that was drawing them in. SilSol had dropped his staff, too engulfed in yelling. It scared TahTao. SilSol needed that staff to get home, to be pure.

"SilSol," he tried to say, to warn him. "The staff!"

"Is there no place in all of the realms of the crystal where a single being will show me compassion?!" SilSol howled.

Something was arching up from SilSol's bent back, a writhing white form. Beak and claws. It screamed of danger in TahTao's mind. It scared him.

"SilSol, stop! Forget Raunip! We're almost done and then we will be home!" TahTao cried, begged.

"Is there truly no love for me in all of creation?!" SilSol raged, the form spilling from his back thrashing wildly like a living thing.

TahTao made to speak, to beg more, only to cry out. The light from the crystal, gentle and warm, suddenly became hot and agonizing. Cries of confusion and pain erupted from the rest. TahTao wanted to pull away but the crystal's tug was too powerful. He could not escape.

Something thrashed from his back. He felt like he was burning up, melting. Being torn apart. It was horrible.

TahTao screamed as the light became too blinding. Then he knew no more.

The next time he opened his eyes, he was not one.

He was two.


	5. New

Takes place right after the urSkek split into urRu and Skeksis.

Also includes the popular theory, featured mainly in last chapter, that Dark Heart is really SilSol. What an impact he tends to make, huh?

New

Loud. Very loud.

Very bright. Too bright.

The world was blurry. He blinked slowly.

Movement nearby. Lots of movement. There were other things here. Lots of things, moving and making noise. Hissing. Growling. Snarling. Moaning.

He shifted. There was something in front of his face, messing with his vision. He moved, body numb. Something drifted into view, swatting at the thing in his face.

Oh, that was his hand. And some kind of growth on his face. That's what he was swatting at.

He looked at his hand. It was large with three long fingers and a thumb. He moved the fingers and noted the claws on them. His skin was grayish, the palm being lighter in color.

Then he focused on the thing on his face. It was curved and kind of knobby. The hand and another—two hands, he had two—ran along the growth. He felt pointed bits—teeth, they were teeth. There were two parts, the part he could see and the part he couldn't. What he couldn't see could move and he tasted air. His finger poked something and he recoiled. It was wet. A tongue.

Words came and went. He could identify the parts of his body and what they were for. Strange. So many words. So many things. How did he know all of this?

He didn't have two arms and hands. He had four. The other pair moved less than the pair he'd seen originally, content to curl by his ribs. His whole body was gray with lighter under parts. His body was long, big, and smooth-skinned. He had spines behind his shoulders, along his back. Two legs were sprawled behind him, along with a long tail covered in quills. They looked more dangerous than the spines on his back. He had a beak on his face and black hair along the top and sides of his head.

Slowly getting up, he started to pay more attention to his surroundings. He was in some gigantic thing—a chamber, a big room—that had a hole in the top—ceiling, it was a ceiling. Sunlight poured in from the hole—a shaft. There were three glowing balls through the shaft that made him squint, his eyes watering as he looked. He had to turn away to scrub his eyes, deciding that looking at the glow was not smart.

Something floated at the center of the room. Some big shiny thing—a crystal, the Great Crystal—hung suspended over a gap in the ground—a hole, no, a deep pit—at the center of the chamber. The sunlight glinted off of it from the balls—suns, three brothers.

How did he know this? He could not figure it out. His thoughts were a jumbled mess. He tried to focus them.

He was distracted by the movements. He swung his head around slowly, taking in the scene around him. There were other beaked creatures just like him in the chamber, along with other creatures that were set lower to the ground than he was.

The other creatures were just as big as him with tan skin covered in strange swirls. They had four arms and two powerful legs, as well as a long tail. Their heads hung on long necks covered in manes of white hair. Their eyes were dark and deep, soulful.

There was screeching and yelling coming from the beaked creatures—his kind. He slowly backed away, gazing from one beaked face to another. Strange. Foreign. Did he know any of them? He wasn't sure. He felt like he did…yet he did not. Confusing.

He yelped, nearly tripping. One of the beaked ones lay slumped on the floor near the crystal, unmoving. He crouched, pushing it. It did not move.

Was it alive? Dead? How could he check?

He breathed. It should breathe too.

He grabbed the unmoving one's beak and pried it open, flinching when his fingers got cut on its teeth. Hot air gushed over his fingers. It breathed. It lived.

Another beaked one, smaller than him, watched from nearby. It had been watching one of the bigger beaked ones roar, swiping pathetically at the other creatures with anger. Now it was watching him. He turned to look at it.

It looked familiar. Not its face. Its eyes. Something familiar was there.

Y… Y… Yi?

What was Yi?

No, not what. Who.

Who was Yi?

Was he Yi? Or was the small beaked one Yi?

"Y… Yi?" he choked out.

The small beaked one stared at him. It crept closer and opened its beak. "Y…"

It didn't get to finish. It suddenly burst into flames and then puffed into ash. There was nothing left of it.

He screamed, tripping again over the unconscious beaked one behind him. The rest stared at him, at the dissolving remnants of the smaller beaked one.

Panic rapidly took over. A bigger beaked one roared, turning back to the other creatures. Other beaked ones took up the war cry, pouncing at the others. Claws raked, teeth bit, limbs lashed out violently. Red—blood, that's what it was, blood—spattered to the chamber floor.

Pain. He screeched, falling to his knees. His back hurt, though he did not know why. Nothing had touched him. He looked around frantically. Nobody but the unconscious beaked one was near him.

He looked at the unconscious beaked one. There was blood on its head. What if it got hurt too?

Something familiar stirred in his chest. Like Yi—he was pretty sure the smaller one had been Yi—something about this one seemed familiar. He dug through his hazy memory for something. A memory. A name.

H… Hah… Hak?

Hak. This was Hak. At least, he thought so.

Hak was hurt. What if it got more hurt by the invisible attacker that had hit his back?

He took one more look at the fighting and then threw himself over Hak. Maybe the invisible thing would leave Hak alone if he was there. Yes, that had to be it.

Hak was longer than him, so it was harder to stretch his shorter form across it, but he did it. He covered Hak as best he could, hoped his spines—both on his back and along his tail—were bristled, and waited with hands over his ears. He could not drown the noise out or ignore the stinging pain in his back from the invisible attacker, but he could take the time to dredge up something new.

Yi was the small one. Hak was the one beneath him. Who was he?

He clawed at his own mind, struggling to pull out answers.

T… Tuh… Tah? Was that it? Tah?

He was Tah.

Yi. Hak. Tah.

He fought to pull more names from his brain, only to be interrupted when another voice screeched. This one had words to it, not just sound.

"Stop! Stop! Hurt us! Hurt them! Stop!"

Movement died. The beaked ones parted from the others, claws and beaks bloody. The others moaned and huddled together, a big mass of low tan creatures covered in red.

The one that spoke lurched forward. A beaked one, not very big but loud. It looked between its kind and the others.

"No more hurt! They hurt! We hurt! Watch!"

It raked its claws down one of its arms and then pointed. Blood dripped from long slashes that now covered the arm of one of the others. The beaked one nicked above its eye with a claw. Blood now dripped from a tiny cut above that same other's eye.

"No more hurt! They hurt! We hurt! No more!"

Tah stared at the display. Then he began to scan through the others until he saw red along one of their backs, roughly in the same spot as his own pain. It wasn't invisible pain. It was because that other had been hurt. If the other was hurt, he got hurt too.

If they got hurt, so did his kind.

One of the others moved, gesturing toward the crystal. All eyes fell upon it. It shone brightly in the sunlight. There was only one sun over it now, the other two having drifted away from the shaft's view.

It was beautiful.

"Go back," the other said. "Two become one."

Tah felt himself shudder at that word. One. Something about it was bad, wrong. It made him scared. Looking at the crystal now also made him scared.

He suddenly remembered pain, white-hot. Light was burning him, tearing into his soul to eat away at him. Someone had screamed. Was it him? Them? Everyone?

"Go back! You have to go back!"

Some strange short creature was now in their midst, yelling loudly as it bustled amongst them. A thing in red with long hair and curling horns. Its face looked squashed and burnt. It only had one eye.

Aughra. Mother of Thra.

Tah did not know how he knew that. He just did.

"You must go back into crystal! Quickly now!"

"Mother, the conjunction is over," a voice came from the shaft, still too bright with sunlight for Tah to look up and find the speaker. "This is what the crystal did. It could not purify, only divide them. The Dark Heart ruined it all for them."

Conjunction. Purify. Divide. These words all mixed with the image of burning light and the crystal in Tah's mind. Pain and fear hit him. He suddenly didn't want to be near the crystal.

Dark Heart. What was that? It sounded familiar but he could not place it.

"Have to try," Aughra huffed, marching to the crystal. "Have to. Can't stay like this, split in two. Need to be whole, one. Can't go home as two! Can't!"

"Mother, run!" the voice cried.

Tah jolted when he heard a loud crack. The crystal seemed to scream, an ear-piercing noise that ripped through the room and seemed to last forever. Aughra raced away with a shout. Something hard had hit the crystal, producing a loud sound that had every creature doubling over in pain. Tah cried out, hands over his ears.

"No! You cracked it! Why?" the voice cried.

"Not one! Two!"

It was a beaked one, large and loud, wielding what looked like a rock on a stick—a hammer. Something about it screamed dangerous and powerful in his brain. This one was the bravest here, the strongest.

Leader. So. That was its name. Their leader, So.

Tah found himself cowering. The rest of the beaked ones were cowering, heads hung low. The other creatures had begun to shuffle away, fleeing. Tah couldn't help but feel relieved at that.

"Mine!" So barked, looking around. "All mine!"

So dropped the hammer, marching around the chamber. Each beaked one hung their head low when So approached. Tah sank as limply over Hak as he could when So reached him.

"Mine!" So hissed, sweeping his arms all around. "Mine!"

"Yours," a wheedling voice from another beaked one agreed. "Yours. Emperor."

So paused, testing the word. Emperor. Powerful. Much better than leader. So liked it.

"Emperor!" So roared.

The others joined the call. So was Emperor So now. He was in charge. Leader.

…Skek.

The word popped into Tah's brain suddenly. Was that what they were? Skeks?

As if reading his mind, the Emperor threw out his arms and declared them to be Skeksis. He was skekSo. Everything and everyone in this castle was to be skek. This was his first royal decree.

So he was skekTah now. And the one below him was skekHak. And the small one that burst into flame was skekYi. Everyone was skek-something.

It was so confusing. The world was Thra. Aughra was Mother of Thra. They were Skeksis. The others were urRu. If the urRu got hurt, so did the Skeksis. They were two that were supposed to be one.

skekTah shut his mind off for a bit. This was too much. He decided to focus on one thing at a time.

He'd deal with the rest of the world later.


	6. Tired

Just a little drabble post-division. Poor skekTah...

Tired

They had once been urSkek. They had been sent to Thra as punishment by their own kind. They had been on the planet for 1000 trine, working with Aughra to go home. At the next Great Conjunction, when the brother suns all lined up above the shaft in the crystal chamber, they tried to go home and failed. urSkek became Skeksis and urRu, connected but divided.

The urRu were gone now, having fled the castle. The Skeksis stayed. The Castle of the Crystal, along with the Great Crystal, was theirs now. They were lords of the crystal, led by Emperor skekSo.

It was all so confusing to skekTah. Over the last several hours since the urRu left, memories and knowledge came flooding back to them. They knew more about Thra now than when they first woke up in the crystal chamber. The environment, the inhabitants, the history…and more was coming with every passing hour.

The sky had grown dark and stormy. The distant rumble of thunder echoed through the crystalline walls of the castle. It was too bright for skekTah to handle. Emperor skekSo seemed to agree and had ordered that dark stone be found to cover up the crystal surfaces, starting tomorrow. The castle would be renovated for Skeksis use.

The Skeksis had scattered through the castle briefly to explore and reacquaint themselves with important locales—stairs and kitchens and banquet halls and bedrooms. Each seemed drawn to a room that suited them, the room they once held as urSkek. There was no squabbling over space. Emperor skekSo had called for peace and silence.

skekTah was in his room now. It was big and full of books of bound leather and yellowed pages held together by thick twine. The bed was large and there was ample space for movement. A thick wooden desk, covered in papers and baubles, sat beneath a wide window.

He scanned the writing, many being notes and reminders of various things. He tried to copy the spidery writing, only to find his to be too sharp and small compared to the large, elegant script on the pages. He felt upset. This was his writing. Why couldn't he copy it?

His shoulder and back still stung. skekTek, the Skeksis that had realized the connection between them and the urRu and had demonstrated it back in the crystal chamber, had tried to patch up most of the injuries that his fellows now bore. He was no doctor but he had enough knowledge to clean and wrap open wounds. The gashes felt much better now than they had earlier, even if they still sang with pain if skekTah moved his upper half too much.

skekTah wondered how the urRu were. Was urTao, his counterpart, okay? Was urHom suffering from the same head injury that skekHak had? Did they register that urYa was gone, as skekYi was?

Thinking of skekYi hurt. He faintly remembered YiYa, even if it was only at that one speech before they were banished. While on Thra, YiYa had been too busy exploring and rarely interacted with TahTao. Memories of being an urSkek were the fuzziest but their banishment rang loud and clear in his mind. skekYi hadn't deserved to die like that, just because urYa fell down the shaft under the Great Crystal into the lava below.

After the urRu had left and the Emperor made his decrees, skekTah had roused skekHak. skekHak had been rather confused at first until the younger managed to settle him. skekHak had been knocked unconscious after the split, having hit his head hard on the floor. skekTek said there shouldn't be any permanent damage but skekTah couldn't help but worry.

HakHom had been one of his closest friends during the thousand trine they had been stuck on Thra. Though their interests lay on very different paths, HakHom had always made time for TahTao. TahTao liked watching things take shape under HakHom's hands. The other was a natural builder. All TahTao could do was write elegantly, yet HakHom made him feel special for it.

Though deemed okay by skekTek, skekHak had required skekTah's help in getting to his room. The other seemed disoriented and confused from the blow, his legs refusing to hold him for long. It worried skekTah greatly to leave skekHak alone but he had his own matters to attend to.

skekTah sat on the bed, suddenly exhausted. It had been a long several hours. Not even a full day. He felt ready to fall asleep at any moment.

A knock on the door roused him from his half-sleep. Getting up, he opened the door to find skekAyuk there with a plate of food in his chubby hands. The fatter Skeksis looked at him worriedly.

"I'm just tired," skekTah reassured, taking the plate. "Thank you."

skekAyuk hurried away, likely back to the kitchens to deliver the next plate of food. skekTah felt bad. skekAyuk didn't look to be in the best of shape for all the running around he had to do now. He remembered the grand banquets that AyukAmaj would set for them. Would skekAyuk be able to do that now?

A single bite brought back the hunger in him. He downed everything on the plate, even licking it clean to ensure he missed nothing. He felt regretful when he realized there was nothing left. He wanted more. He set the plate aside and told himself that that was all he'd get tonight.

He collapsed back on the bed. He'd hunt down more food tomorrow. Right now, he'd sleep.


	7. Sunset

First journey beyond the castle...and it's anything but willing...

Takes place shortly after the division.

Sunset

skekTah again tried to set his wrist free, failing miserably. He couldn't break skekUng's grip at all. The other Skeksis was simply too big and too strong. skekTah had no hope of overcoming him.

At least he could take solace in the fact that he was not the only one being dragged from the castle.

"Hmmmmmmm."

skekTah winced, the sound grating on his ears. It was an annoying noise, that whimper of skekSil's. Worst of all, skekSil seemed to notice this…and kept doing it…constantly…

"Hmmmmmmm."

skekUng came to a stop, whipping around. "Stop with that whimpering!" he snarled, snapping his beak within an inch of skekSil's own.

The leaner Skeksis tilted backward as far as his trapped wrist would allow. Yet his whimper only grew louder and more annoying. skekUng snarled before facing forward, dragging skekTah and skekSil behind him.

They were leaving the castle. Emperor skekSo wanted to know more about the area around their new home, the Castle of the Crystal. Peering out a window revealed forest, far too much green, and a river shining in the distance. skekUng had volunteered for the job and swiftly snatched the wrists of the nearest two Skeksis.

Unfortunately, those Skeksis were skekTah and skekSil. Neither were pleased to have been chosen as skekUng's hiking partners.

Currently, skekUng was probably regretting that choice too. skekSil did nothing but whimper and skekTah had complained far too much about the heat and the bugs and such. The larger Skeksis had never heard so many complaints in so little time.

skekTah wished he had on something more than the thin tan robe he wore. His arms and legs were covered in scratches and his feet ached from the rough terrain. skekSil was no better off, having taken a branch to the beak earlier via skekUng's haphazard way of clearing a trail for them—breaking and pushing and kicking things out of his immediate way with no regard for the fact that those same objects may snap back to strike those behind him.

None of the Skeksis really had much in terms of clothes right now. skekEkt was practicing his sewing and planned to make them all better robes, but that wouldn't be for several days still. Until then, most of them only had on the single layer of light robes that skekEkt had fashioned the morning after the Emperor had cracked the Great Crystal.

Said robes were doing a poor job of keeping them protected from the elements…like snapping branches. One whipped skekTah's shoulder and he yelped. skekSil whimpered, ducking below another branch that skekUng had failed to break.

"Can you stop that?" skekTah requested, looking at his companion. "This is bad enough without you making that noise all the time. What if something hears us?"

skekSil regarded him with a frown before he sneered, teeth on display. "Hmmmmmm. Make me."

skekTah backed down, trying not to trip over roots as skekUng dragged them behind him. skekSil straightened, putting him nearly a head taller than skekTah. It was an intimidating sight. skekTah shrunk back, mumbling a swift apology. He hadn't meant to anger or offend the other.

skekSil shrieked when he abruptly crashed into a tree trunk. Peeling himself from the bark, he screeched at their so-called 'guide' for an apology. skekUng turned and snapped the other's beak shut with a hand. skekSil hissed, eyes narrowed, fingers itching to claw and scratch his way to freedom.

They all heard the loud snort from ahead of them and froze.

skekSil fell silent. skekTah didn't dare breathe. skekUng removed his hand from skekSil's beak, turning forward. He released them both, all four limbs flexing, sharp claws at the ready.

skekTah suddenly missed skekUng's grip on his wrist. While harsh, it had been like a lifeline. skekUng was bigger than both of them. Bigger meant stronger. Stronger than him or skekSil.

Or maybe it was more of the fact that he still recalled the dual nature of UngIm.

An urSkek that was both endlessly caring and impossibly dangerous when angered. The release of the stirrings in him had made UngIm doubly dangerous, but it did not remove his nurturing ability. On more than one occasion, skekTah could recall UngIm lashing out and then moments later fixing whatever damage he had caused, be it to living or inanimate victims.

skekUng didn't seem to have that nurturing nature anymore. skekTah had seen him bellow and roar ferociously. When the Skeksis first woke up in the crystal chamber, skekUng had been the first to attack the urRu after skekYi had died. The urge to rend and destroy ran hot through skekUng's veins.

Perhaps skekTah would never see the same kindness in skekUng that UngIm had displayed, but that behavior wouldn't defend them from the owner of the sound ahead of them.

skekUng, on the other hand, very well might.

The bushes parted before them to reveal a tall creature that was mostly long limbs. It blinked down at them before slowly striding away, steps stiff but quick. It was gone as fast as it had appeared.

skekTah felt breath return to him. "What was that?" he choked.

"Hmmmmmm," skekSil whimpered.

"Pah! Who cares?" skekUng snorted. "Onward!"

Thus the dragging continued. As did skekTah's complaining. And skekSil's whimpering.

At least the trek granted skekTah time to think. Thinking led to discoveries as he dug through his jumbled memories of being an urSkek. This time, it gave the creature they had seen a name—Landstrider, a completely harmless riding beast for the Gelfling.

skekTah couldn't help but feel more comfortable. At least they hadn't run into something that had wanted to eat them.

Hours passed and with it, their journey wound down. skekTah was never so happy to return to the castle as he was that evening. The Greater Sun had just dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in vibrant oranges and pinks to mix with the Rose Sun's light. It was a gorgeous spectacle to witness.

skekUng did not care for it. He was snarling at skekSil. Apparently the whimpering had finally set him off on more than just yelling. skekTah stayed out of their fight, content to stare at the colorful sky as they heading back into the castle to tell the Emperor of what they saw.

He decided that maybe keeping that dark cloth over his window wasn't that much of a good idea. Maybe he'd open it, if only to see this pretty sight every evening.


	8. Sunrise

Takes place shortly after skekHak died. Poor skekTah...

Why must I write such sad things?

Sunrise

The Note-Taker hated this.

How could the world still keep going? Why was the sun still rising? Why was life continuing forth without any heart or care to it at all?

skekHak was dead.

And the world kept going without even stopping to mourn him.

skekTah glared bitterly at the beam of sunlight that had landed on the blanket closest to him. How dare it be so warm and cheerful? He swatted at it but, naturally, it did not flee. Sunlight was unafraid of anything it touched.

The Note-Taker was huddled beneath the covers of his bed in wretched self-isolation. He had not eaten or moved from his place in three days. Yet the world continued to turn, the suns continued to rise and set, and life did not pause for even a moment.

The world may have forgotten skekHak, but skekTah would not.

Somebody knocked on his door. That had been happening frequently. skekTah ignored them, burrowing ever further into the crude nest he'd made out of his blankets and robes. It kept him warm and contained, sheltering him from view.

The same way his locked door did.

"skekTah!"

It was skekUng again. Wonderful.

"skekTah, open this door immediately! You're acting like a newborn Gelfling!"

Heh. What did skekUng care? It wasn't his ally that had died a few days ago. He still had skekNa and skekTek. He had suffered no loss from this. Why was he checking up on the Note-Taker so much?

Stupid brute. Go away.

The knocking ended. Good. skekTah relaxed in his nest, permitting himself a few more minutes of half-slumber as he pondered why the world hadn't halted everything to mourn his friend.

Because that's what skekHak had been. A friend. Not just an ally. A friend.

Such terminology was used among Gelfling and Podlings. Never among Skeksis. They had allies and those who they held beneficial relationships with. But not friendship. That was too personal of a connection and, since their birth 300 trine ago, the Skeksis had discovered in themselves an inborn distrust of one another that even their prior relationships as urSkek could not overcome.

Yet skekTah and skekHak had battled viciously to overcome it.

And skekTah liked to think that they had beaten the distrust inside of themselves. He hadn't felt wary or hesitant around skekHak as he did around everyone else. He'd felt comfortable. Even, dare he say it, safe? He hoped that the Machinist had felt the same.

He certainly felt a connection to his alliance, if only on a level that told him that he could run to them if he was in trouble. skekVar would defend him from danger. But there was no friendship. Just a sense of trust. These were members of his alliance and they guarded one another without complaint, if only to benefit for their own safety.

skekHak had gone above and beyond that trust for skekTah. He'd helped skekTah by making him special tools for his job. He'd taught skekTah the basics of metalworking so he could craft the keys that would get the Note-Taker into any locked room in the castle. They could speak of their urSkek lives without revulsion or self-hatred.

Now all of that was gone. skekHak was dead, never to return. And with him went skekTah's strongest connection amongst the Skeksis Court.

skekTah jolted, woken from his lucid dreaming by a loud crash. He slowly sat up, having been hunching on his numb knees in a kind of curled kneel within his nest, and craned his neck to look at his door.

Funny, he could see gaps in the sides. Was it tilted?

…No, it was missing the top and bottom hinges.

skekTah frowned, brow furrowed as he squinted to see better. He could faintly see a dark shape against one of the gaps. He strained his ears and heard something sharp scraping against metal.

It hit him like a stone and he wanted to scream in rage and fear.

skekUng was ripping out the hinges and bolts of his door, just as he and skekVar had done to the Machinist's room ten trine ago.

skekTah surged from bed at the same moment that his door's bottom edge hit the ground, tilting out into the hall to crash to the castle floor. The Note-Taker faltered, having jumped from bed on trembling legs full of pins and needles. skekUng filled his doorway now, red eyes narrowed.

"There," the title-less Skeksis hissed.

skekTah scrambled back, instantly afraid. skekUng was one of the largest Skeksis in the whole castle and among the tallest, surpassed only by skekZok and perhaps skekEkt if he stood up straight. In terms of muscle and mass, skekUng was easily double that of the Note-Taker. There was no contest.

"You are coming to the banquet hall with me," skekUng growled. "Then you will join the procession with us. You will not complain. Is that clear, Note-Taker?"

His tone was low but deadly. The edge on it was sharp enough to cut bone. skekTah cowered. There were no alternatives to skekUng's demands.

"Clear," skekTah choked.

His wrist was snatched as an added measure. skekUng proceeded to drag the Note-Taker down the winding halls until they reached the banquet hall. Just the scent of all the food made skekTah's mouth water, but he kept his beak shut and looked disinterested. No need to humiliate himself further by betraying his own hunger to the rest of the court.

"Ah! Note-Taker!" the Emperor crowed. "Decided to join us, have you?"

"Hmmmmm. skekUng's persuasion seemed to suffice," the Chamberlain agreed.

skekUng snorted, releasing skekTah's wrist and stomping off. This left the Note-Taker alone at the center of the banquet. Most of the others looked at him oddly. He was pretty sure he noted pity in the gazes of skekOk and skekEkt but he ignored them. He needed none of it.

"Are you all right?"

skekGra had sidled up to him, eyes casting about for any eavesdroppers.

"I'm fine," skekTah muttered.

"Come," skekGra prompted, nudging his shoulder lightly toward one end of the room.

skekTah went without argument. skekGra guided him to skekVar and skekSa, who shuffled impatiently until the Note-Taker had joined them. Once he was among them, their ranks closed up to form a wall against the rest of the court.

"Why weren't you coming out?" skekVar demanded, voice torn between anger and concern. "I was beginning to think that you had died, like skekHak!"

skekTah sighed, looking away. There was no real excuse or explanation for his actions.

"Mourning for skekHak?" the Mariner guessed.

"Hiding in your room and starving won't get him back, Note-Taker," skekVar insisted, grasping the smaller Skeksis' shoulders. "I miss skekHak too…but we can't do anything for him anymore. We have to help ourselves now."

"…So we should be as heartless as the world? Just forget him and move on?" skekTah hissed bitterly.

"We'll never forget him," the General vowed. "But yes, we must move on. The world stops for no one, no matter how important they are. And we must do the same."

It sounded so unfair. How could he just move on? The Machinist had been his friend.

"After the meal, we'll have his funeral," skekGra said. "skekZok set it up yesterday, but the Emperor refused to have it without all of us in attendance."

"That's why skekUng was at my room so much," skekTah guessed.

"Yes," skekVar confirmed. "skekTah…"

"I won't starve myself," the Note-Taker decided. "I won't hide. I'll help honor skekHak. He deserves that much."

skekTah forced himself to eat. It wasn't hard. The first tangy morsel on his tongue prompted his stomach to fall into overdrive. It took everything he had to stop eating when skekZok entered the chamber, proclaiming that the funeral was ready to commence. At the Emperor's command, the court lined up and marched out of the banquet hall.

skekTah yelped when he found himself pulled aside from his place at the end of the line.

"Come with me," the Ritual-Master ordered, shuffling down a side corridor.

The Note-Taker followed, freezing when they reached one of the ceremonial chambers. skekVar was there, along with a black casket bearing three corners. It didn't take a genius to realize what was happening.

"Man the back with skekVar. We move when I say," skekZok ordered, positioning himself at the front corner of the casket.

skekTah shuffled near skekVar, confused. The General indicated the opposite corner. skekTah took his position, gazing at the casket. It was so ornate, decorated with silver inscriptions of the Great Conjunction—a triangle with three concentric circles depicted within its straight lines. How did the Ritual-Master put this all together in just three days?

"Onward," skekZok stated.

skekTah grasped his corner and lifted it in time with the General and the Ritual-Master. skekZok led their process, slow and cautious to avoid tipping the casket or dropping it. skekTah kept pace with skekVar, though it wasn't hard with how slow they were moving. It made the trip take forever, it felt.

They eventually reached the mausoleum, where the rest of the Skeksis had formed a wide circle. At the center of the room was a large black pedestal with a sheet of obsidian silk covering it, shot through with golden thread. skekZok guided the casket to that pedestal, circling around the room while the Podling choir sang overhead.

Their circling complete, the Ritual-Master stepped around the pedestal to rest the casket squarely on it. With a minute wave of his hand, he cast skekTah and skekVar back amongst the circle. skekZok rose his hands and began to chant. The rest of the court joined him, reciting the words that he spoke.

With a sharp command, skekZok called upon a Podling bearing a copper bowl decorated with silver. The tiny creature, with its round face and button eyes, toddled around the circle. Each Skeksis reached inside to pull out a smoking orb that glowed.

skekTah picked one up when his turn came and found that it was made of some kind of translucent material. Deep within, it glowed with some kind of inner combustion. The Ritual-Master couldn't have made these. These were of the Scientist's making, surely.

skekZok called out, arms raised to the heavens. Each Skeksis watched him with rapt attention. The instant he lowered his arms to his chest, the court tossed the smoking orbs at the casket with perfect precision. The casket exploded into flame that hungrily ate at it and the silk upon the pedestal.

skekTah watched the scene in awe. Nobody moved until the casket and silk had been devoured entirely. Once it was reduced to cinders and ash, the court broke up while the Ritual-Master transferred the torched remains into a clay jar. What he did with the remains after that, skekTah did not know. He was already being guided from the room by skekVar before he could see.

"The Emperor has decided that skekHak's tools will be split between us, as his closest allies," the General whimpered. "I gathered most of his tools and have had skekMal gather up everything else for you. They'll be in your room. Use them well."

"Thank you," skekTah said softly.

"Let the rest of them squabble over the remnants. We have everything important of skekHak's," skekVar huffed, glowering at those ahead of them.

skekTah felt better about that already. He'd have all he needed in terms of tools and keys and metalworking. He'd be able to continue his job to the Emperor with his notes, both obvious and hidden. He only knew the basics of metalworking but he'd be sure to learn the rest along the way.

Passing the crystal chamber, skekTah paused to look upon its wine dark coloring and the gap near its top. Sometimes he could still hear the echo of its scream from when the Emperor struck it 300 trine ago. Or was it their screams that day that he kept hearing?

He sighed, turning away. He would not surrender his life just yet. He would live on.

For both skekYi and skekHak, he must.


	9. Busted

This ones takes place roughly close to the Legends manga. Just another peek into skekTah's daily doings post-Gelfling Gathering.

Busted

skekTah the Schemer lurked within the hidden corridors between the layers of dark stone and dulled crystal. It had taken him quite a few trine to realize that they were indeed hidden corridors within the castle's walls. Some exploration into them found the passages to be narrow but winding through a majority of the castle.

They were just the right size for an impromptu spy to make use of to gather hidden secrets and private conversations from Skeksis with no true sense of their surroundings.

And make use of them, he had.

For almost a hundred trine now, skekTah had slunk into these narrow passages and wandered in search of conversations hidden behind walls, secret acts done out of sight, and other things that could put him above the rest in terms of information. These had served him very well in giving him a cache of secrets to use against others.

But there were things that even he couldn't quite decipher and were left as unsolved mysteries, things to go back to later when he could dredge up more about them in secret.

Such as skekTek's increasing skittishness around skekLach the Collector, the Emperor's recent favorite.

There were many theories skekTah could fall back on to explain this, but truths were more powerful than theories when it came to his line of work. Theories and guesses could backfire horribly on him. No, if he did not have the truth behind it, the secret was useless to him.

And now he needed to be doubly careful with what he heard and used against others. His area of expertise was being invaded upon, primarily by the Chamberlain. skekTah had seen far too many spy animals wandering the corridors deep within the castle to make him comfortable. If somebody managed to usurp his cache, his position in the court could be in jeopardy.

This made his secret passages even more important to him. So far, nobody else knew of their existence. If he could keep it that way, he'd still hold an edge over the Chamberlain and anyone else looking to encroach on the Schemer's position.

That didn't mean he didn't take advantage of his own secret to have a bit of fun. Somebody needed to since skekLi the Satirist had been banished. Poor fellow…

Ah, there they were. Perfect.

skekTah paused within the passage, fingers working along the gap between the stones. He smiled when they shifted, letting him open the passage up slightly. He crept out, pushing the stones back into place. Nobody paid enough attention to the walls to notice these chinks in their solidity.

Just another secret for the Schemer to keep to himself.

He slowed his breathing and waited. He could hear them babbling around the corner, none the wiser to his sudden appearance. The last they'd seen of him had been in the crystal chamber several minutes ago, quite a long distance from here.

He'd been doing this to them for several weeks now, each with greater success than the last. He had to be careful, though. Too many times and suspicion would rise as to how he was accomplishing this seemingly impossible act of his, moving through the castle so swiftly. He didn't need anybody snooping on him.

And…here…they…come…

skekEkt and skekAyuk turned the corner, babbling something about dinner plans. skekTah did not care to pay attention to their chatter.

His heavy hunting cloak pulled over his head, the Schemer rose as tall as he could and hissed, vestigial arms twitching violently to give his cloak more motion. Out of the sunlight as he currently was, he looked like some demon crawling from the shadows. It was an act he had perfected with help from skekMal the Hunter many trine ago, though that case had been used to capture Gelfling, not terrorize fellow Skeksis.

The effect was the same regardless—hilarious.

skekEkt jolted, head thrown back in that high-pitched shriek of his. skekAyuk stumbled backward, tripping over his tail and crashing to the floor. The Ornamentalist turned, racing down the corridor, screams of "Monster! Monster!" echoing down the hall. The Gourmand rolled, struggling to his feet, and waddled after the screaming skekEkt.

skekTah laughed, loud and raucous, flipping the cloak back and settling his vestigial arms back to his sides. That had certainly been fun. He admitted that perhaps it was a perverse enjoyment of his, hearing skekEkt shriek and flail at the slightest of things. It was amusing, especially since the Gourmand always felt compelled to join the panic in his own slovenly way.

The Schemer sighed, catching his breath from the laughter that had shaken him. He turned, ready to slink back into his passages and snoop for secrets. He'd had his dose of fun today.

He froze instantly, nearly colliding with a Skeksis much taller and more ornately dressed than he was.

"Having fun, Schemer?" skekLach chuckled, an eyebrow cocked curiously.

skekTah's words died on his tongue. Of course it was the Collector. Just his luck!

At one time, he and skekLach had been on friendly terms. Not exactly allies, per say, but they had worked together with skekOk the Scroll-Keeper in taking the Gelfling census around Thra. That was when they were Census Taker and Note-Taker, not Collector and Schemer, before the Gelfling Gathering and the Garthim attacks began. There had been no dispute between the pair of them and skekTah had even liked to think that he could trust skekLach.

That was before the newly-dubbed Collector became the favorite, replacing the disgraced Chamberlain at the Emperor's side. skekLach's tune had rapidly changed to an arrogant and confident being, much different from the cautious and even frightened Skeksis that skekLach had become after losing his eye and arm several trine ago. He had instantly become a threat to the rest of the court in terms of power.

skekTah couldn't help but agree with the rest of the court on that. skekLach, once his partner in the census and recordkeeping, was now somebody that could ruin him. He was a Skeksis to be respected and feared without hesitation.

And skekTah had just been caught red-handed in his terrorizing act by that very Skeksis.

"Not going to answer?" skekLach asked, head tilted, a menacing smile stretching across his beak.

There was no way he could go into his hidden passages now. Not with skekLach—and likely a plethora of spy-eyes and other spy animals with him—this close. He'd having to move about normally, like every other Skeksis.

"Their reaction is rather hilarious, isn't it, skekTah?" skekLach chuckled, looking past the Schemer in the direction that the Gourmand and the Ornamentalist had fled. "I can certainly see the appeal in your acts."

Would he bring this to the Emperor? Would he somehow have it decreed that skekTah be banished, like skekLi had been?

skekTah fell back on old behavior around skekLach and prayed he would be met with mercy.

"Without the Satirist, there's very little to do for those of us that have no part in the Gelfling raids," skekTah admitted.

"Ah," skekLach nodded. "I can understand this."

skekLach moved down the corridor, gesturing for skekTah to join him. The smaller did so, though reluctantly. He was reminded of how much bigger and stronger skekLach was compared to him. It was a frightening comparison, now that they walked side by side.

"The Ornamentalist has his sewing. The Gourmand has his cooking. The Slave-Master has his slaving. The Scientist has his research. The Scroll-Keeper has his records. The Treasurer has his gold. The Ritual-Master has his ceremonies. The Chamberlain has his whimpering."

skekTah noticed the snort of dismissal when the Chamberlain was listed. skekLach no longer deemed the Chamberlain a problem.

No wonder why. The Chamberlain had no way to pull attention from the Emperor to himself, not with skekLach's recent victories in the Gelfling raids. The Collector was untouchable.

"Yet what is there for a Schemer to do?" skekLach asked, eyes cast to the ceiling. "There is no need for plans. The Gelfling raids are going spectacularly without one. The Emperor has no need for notes or reminders now. I can see why you've fallen to skekLi's level to keep yourself occupied, skekTah."

There was an edge to those words, yet it was drenched in sweetness.

skekTah recognized this kind of talk. It was the language that skekLach and others had used many times before the Gelfling Gathering, before the realization hit about what the Skeksis had really been doing to the Gelfling that were brought to the castle—draining them for youth-restoring essence. Such language was now used amongst rivals within the castle, away from the Emperor's ears.

"Indeed," skekTah nodded minutely, trying to speak as little as possible.

skekLach could do all the talking. He was good at that. He always had been, both as Census Taker and Collector.

"Perhaps there is a task that you can do," skekLach said abruptly, winding his metal arm around skekTah's shoulders.

The Schemer flinched. He swore he could feel the bite of cold steel, even through his mantle and heavy layers of robes. He'd help design and make this limb—among other things that skekHak had already partially-created before his death—directly after skekLach had lost his biological one. To have it used against him now was sickening.

"The Chamberlain has been up to something lately," skeklach hissed right into the Schemer's ear, far too close to skekTah's comfort. "I want to know what it is. Do this for me and I'll ensure you remain among the Emperor's favored."

The Chamberlain had indeed been up to things lately. Everyone knew this. skekTah had followed skekSil many times and heard many things, none too important beyond secrets that he already knew. skekSil desired what most did—the downfall of the Collector.

Now he was being tasked to directly tail the Chamberlain for secrets.

skekTah had no choice but to accept. To refuse would set the Collector against him. He was on neutral ground with skekLach. There was no need to put himself in danger, even if it might put him in the Chamberlain's crosshairs.

Right now, the Collector was a much more dangerous foe than the Chamberlain was.

skekLach smiled. "That's a good Schemer. Come to me when you find anything out."

skekTah was relieved when the Collector left, disappearing around the next bend. The Schemer checked himself thoroughly for spy-eyes. Satisfied that he was clean, he pulled aside the sheet of rock and returned to his hidden passages.

He had a Chamberlain to spy on.


	10. Graveyard

Post-Legends manga, obviously. Poor skekTah just cannot get a break...

Graveyard

skekTah sighed. He couldn't believe himself. If anyone else saw him doing this, they might think he'd gone mad. Yet here he was, doing it like Gelfling did.

He was placing flowers on a set of graves.

They weren't out in the open field and there was nothing beneath the dirt. Most of the remains had been burned in the funerals, the ashes stored in clay jars that remained in the Room of the Dead. All the graves were nothing more than his broken tail spines stabbed into the ground in an empty dead-end tunnel in the castle's catacombs, where no sunlight could ever hope to reach.

Today, skekVar, his strongest ally…his final ally…was dead.

Slain by the Gelfling, who now carried weapons and waged war against the Skeksis. skekTah could do nothing to save his ally on the battlefield until it was too late. Even now, he could taste blood on his teeth, feel it crusted along his tail. He'd avenged skekVar…but it didn't take away the numbness in his chest.

He'd brought skekVar's remains back to the castle. He'd manned one of the corners of the casket during skekVar's funeral. He'd kept skekVar's sword, stowing it in his quarters. The rest of the General's metallic belonging—his weapons and armor—were melted down to create other objects and necessities for the Gelfling hunt, as ordered by the Emperor.

When all was said and done, skekTah crept away into the catacombs to his own personal Room of the Dead. There, he broke another spine from his tail and stabbed it into the ground. Folding his hands, he softly recited what he could remember of the prayers that the Ritual-Master would chant during the funerals.

Hopefully it would be enough to quell any anger skekVar held and let his soul move on.

The Schemer had clawed out this tunnel himself shortly after skekMal had died over a hundred trine ago. He wasn't satisfied with the funerals that skekZok held. He wanted to do something personal for his fallen ally. So he began breaking spines, ignoring the bloody cuts he gained on his palms and fingers from grasping the serrated spines so roughly, and using them as impromptu grave makers. Then he performed his own funeral service with what small items he had managed to rescue from his allies' bodies before the rest of the court, the Collector most of all, could steal them.

Today he rested skekVar's sword beside him as he chanted.

There were seven spines imbedded in the ground before him, one for each of his fallen allies or close companions. Though this tunnel had been made in the wake of skekMal's death, the Schemer mourned those who had died before him as well.

First was title-less skekYi, who died right after the division, burned to a crisp thanks to his urRu counterpart's plunge into the lava beneath the Dark Crystal. Though skekTah hadn't known him well, he had resolved not to forget the younger Skeksis. He had not received a funeral as those had not become commonplace at the time for the court.

Second was skekHak the Machinist, who was the first and last to die of old age after 300 trine of Skeksis rule on Thra. His death had incited the aging panic that inevitably led to many of the anti-aging discoveries that the Scientist made. He had been skekTah's first ally and his dearest friend. The first Skeksis funeral on record went to him.

Third was skekLi the Satirist, who was banished for mistakenly pranking the Emperor shortly after the Gelfling Gathering had occurred, when the Emperor's mood soured into the foul creature he now was. Last skekTah had heard, skekLi's remains were found near a Gelfling village that was raided by Garthim. There had been no funeral for him.

Fourth was skekGra the Conqueror, who had challenged the Emperor for the throne after he returned from conquering every land around Skarith and failed to win said challenge. He had been banished and was never seen again. He was presumed dead now, after so many dozen trine, and had also not received a funeral.

Fifth was skekMal the Hunter, who was slain by Gelfling shortly after the Gelfling Gathering. He had attempted to hunt the Queen down and was slain during his attack on her. His remains were recovered and he'd received a funeral in honor of the many Gelfling lives he'd taken in the Emperor's name.

Sixth was skekSa the Mariner, who had died after exterminating the last of the Sifa. He had been struck by a harpoon and his wounds had become irreparably infected while out at sea, killing him shortly after his return to the castle. He was honored greatly during his funeral for eradicating one of the more elusive Gelfling clans on Thra.

Seventh and thus last…was skekVar the General. The one that skekTah now mourned.

His allies were now officially all dead. skekTah the Schemer was alone again.

This was okay. He'd been preparing for this since skekMal's death. Once the Gelfling took up arms and had begun fighting back, he'd steeled himself for the possibility that Skeksis he knew may die.

He just hadn't thought that every death would be ones that he'd called his allies.

His chanting ended. The funeral was complete, to the best of his memory and resources. skekTah slowly rose to his feet, picking up the sword. He'd stow it back into his quarters, safely out of skekLach's greedy reach, and carry on with his job.

He left the empty tunnel behind. There were no torches to give this spot away. The catacombs were pitch black, letting skekTah's night vision take over and guide him back to the upper reaches of the castle. There was no chance of anyone coming across the makeshift funeral site.

Even if someone did, he doubted they'd know what they'd stumbled upon. There was nothing there but broken tail spines and withered plants. Nobody knew about the spines on his tail. There was nothing to fear.

skekTah dropped the General's sword off in his room, locking the door. Then he moved outside toward what had once been a garden. Most of it was dying now from lack of care. skekSa had maintained it for a while but once he'd died, the garden lay forgotten. skekTah had contemplated reviving it but did not quite know how. He certainly wasn't going to ask the Scientist for answers.

He had no allies. Maybe he had been cursed to remain alone and ally-less. skekHak had been his dearest friend and he was dead. Every ally skekTah had made, close or distant, was dead. There was nobody for him to turn to now.

He chuckled darkly. At this rate, perhaps skekLach would go next. He was the only other besides the Emperor that the Schemer had been close to.

…Would the Emperor die too?

skekTah couldn't help but chuckle. Funny, now that he thought about it, maybe he was some kind of living plague. Anyone that got too close to him would die.

Even better reason to cling to his renewed loner status. He'd simply remain a lone faction now.

The Schemer nudged a dying flower with his foot. Maybe he'd try and revive the garden. At worst, it would just die.

Nothing he hadn't witnessed before.


	11. Specter

This is an AU of last chapter, Graveyard. Instead of skekVar being killed by the Gelfling, skekTah was. Yeah…

Specter

Pain.

Spears and swords and various other sharp implements had been driven into his chest, his back, his ribs. He was completely skewered. He felt like an insect in one of skekLach's display cases.

Only it was Gelfling doing the skewering, not skekLach.

Gelfling wielding weapons of war. The peaceful, naïve, innocent Gelfling. Gelfling who were not supposed to fight, let alone kill.

Yet they were killing him.

"skekTah!"

skekVar.

The Schemer blinked, peering at him minutely. The General swung his double-bladed sword, cutting through the Gelfling as he marched toward where skekTah was. There was rage and hate in skekVar's yellow eyes.

The Gelfling that had cut him down scattered like Crawlies when skekVar reached them, fleeing from his weapon and his wrathful bellow. The General stood over skekTah, roaring. The Gelfling fled.

The battle was as good as over. The Garthim would finish the rest off shortly.

Dropping his weapon, skekVar crouched to gather skekTah up. The Schemer coughed, blood oozing from the corners of his beak. He tried to smile, crack some stupid joke that might make skekLi proud.

He only managed a croak before he fell still. Then he crumbled to dust in the General's arms.

Dead.

Yet skekTah was still there, watching himself crumble. It was terrifying.

skekVar gave a shriek of alarm, gathering the dust and robes up, as if he could put the Schemer back together if he had all of his remains. But that was impossible. It was too late.

The Schemer was already dead.

skekVar made a choked noise, carefully gathering all of the robes and dust and fluids into a rough ball in one arm. Fetching his weapon with his free hand, he spun on his heel and pursued the Garthim. He could see Gelfling huddled together, ready for the taking.

skekTah drifted after the General, confused. Why wasn't he going to the castle?

"Stop!" skekVar roared, halting the Garthim from making their kills. "Let me see them first!"

"General! What are yo—"

The words died on the Garthim Master's tongue when he saw the bundle of black and green and deep violet robes tucked under skekVar's arm. He instantly understood.

skekTah couldn't help but laugh, though it was without audible sound. He'd never seen the Garthim Master rendered silent before. And all over the Schemer's remains. Even funnier.

"Let me see them. I know his killers are here," skekVar barked. "I saw them."

skekUng gave no argument. The Garthim backed up, though they formed a thick black ring of carapace and pincers around the captured Gelfling to prevent any escape. The Gelfling cowered, weaponless and injured.

skekVar's eyes roved over the group, picking out familiar individuals. With every Gelfling he pointed out, skekUng lunged to tear them from the group. The Gelfling tried to hold rank and keep the Garthim Master away, but the Skeksis was too strong for his intent to be denied. Most of the smaller creatures were harshly knocked aside if they got in skekUng's way.

Finally, six Gelfling were left to stand before skekVar. skekTah watched as his remains were carefully transferred to the Garthim Master's care, allowing skekVar to take up his sword. The Gelfling watched in terrified silence.

The Schemer was honestly shocked. skekVar cared enough to personally execute his murderers and skekUng had both willingly retrieved said murderers and handled skekTah's remains while skekVar readied his sword. He hadn't expected his death to hold such an impact on the two most powerful military-based Skeksis that the castle had left.

All over a Schemer. Who would've thought?

skekVar raised his blade and promptly slaughtered the first Gelfling. The other five tried to run, only to be driven back into place by skekUng. They had nowhere else to run. One by one, the General killed each Gelfling until all six lay dead along the ground, their blood spattered across skekVar's robes and weapon.

"The rest are yours," skekVar said, reclaiming the Schemer's remains from the Garthim Master.

"Take them to the castle! Let the Scientist drain them for the Emperor!" skekUng barked, watching in satisfaction as the remaining Gelfling were stuffed into the thick wicker cages along the Garthim's backs.

Then he moved to follow the General back into the castle.

skekTah drifted after them both. He didn't understand. He was dead, yet he was still here. Was this what happened after death? You just become a bystander, watching the world move on without you, without being able to interfere in it?

The General entered the throne room, the Garthim Master behind him. skekLach broke off of his conversation with the Emperor to smile at skekVar…and paused, smile dropping away when he saw the bundle of robes that the other carried. The Emperor rose, equally confused.

"General, what is that?" Emperor skekSo barked. "Why aren't you out capturing Gelfling?"

"The Gelfling are dealt with, Emperor," skekVar said. "But the Schemer…"

"He's dead," skekLach realized.

The throne room fell silent. skekVar gently cradled the robes in his arms while he told the court what happened. How bravely the usually non-combative Schemer had fought to help the General. How skekTah had been run through multiple times by the Gelfling, killing him. How skekVar had avenged him by slaughtering those responsible, with skekUng having the rest sent to the Scientist for draining.

skekTah drifted to the side and watched the shock and horror that crossed the faces of his fellows. skekEkt sobbed, wiping his eyes with a lacy handkerchief. skekOk shook his head, murmuring his regrets for not convincing the Schemer to stay in the castle. skekLach was stunned into silence.

The Emperor broke that silence. "skekZok, set up the procession. We shall hold a funeral for our fallen Schemer."

It was strange to watch the whole thing from the beginning, skekTah decided. The Ritual-Master carefully took hold of the remains, removing them from the General's care before disappearing into one of the ceremonial chambers. skekZok gathered the necessary materials to craft the casket and set to work.

The casket itself was simple to put together, carefully shielding the Schemer's remains. The silver runes and the markings of the Great Conjunctions were painstakingly painted on by skekZok's own hand in melted silver. Once the casket was prepared, he moved to the mausoleum to set up the pedestal and silk.

skekTah drifted away to seek out the Scientist. skekTek was busy filling a copper bowl full of the smoky orbs. They were made with simplistic but showy materials, meant to combust upon impact with the casket. Once the bowl was full, he passed it to a Podling slave and sent it to the mausoleum with a snarled threat of death if it dropped any of the orbs.

The Schemer then drifted off in search of the Podling choir. He found them being led down a hall close to the mausoleum by skekEkt and the Slave-Master. skekNa kept the group moving with snarled threats and swipes of his hook, bringing up the rear while the Ornamentalist led at the front. They went up the steps to the second level until they reached the balcony over the chamber.

Lining the Podling slaves up neatly and making sure everything looked perfect, skekEkt gave a sharp shriek to call the Ritual-Master's attention to them. skekZok nodded his approval and sent the pair on their way. skekTah drifted after the duo.

"Poor, poor skekTah!" skekEkt sobbed.

"Stop crying," skekNa growled. "It won't bring him back. Hasn't brought anyone else back yet."

"But still! We all knew he wasn't very good at fighting! Why did he go with skekVar? The General was just fine on his own!" the Ornamentalist whined.

"How should I know? Probably didn't want to be left alone if skekVar died! Not like he has anyone else except the General," the Slave-Master snorted.

"Poor, poor skekTah!" skekEkt continued to sob, blowing his nose loudly.

skekTah let them continue on, drifting back to the mausoleum. skekZok was leaving, so the Schemer trailed him.

He briefly thought of the benefits of being like this, invisible to others. He could find a lot of secrets this way. Nobody could see him but he could hear them, see them.

But then he recalled that he was dead. There was no one to share those secrets with. It was a pointless benefit.

skekZok returned to the ceremonial chamber. skekVar and skekUng were there, stationed at the back corners of the casket. At the Ritual-Master's command, they lifted the casket and guided it toward the mausoleum. skekTah drifted behind them, nothing more than a passive witness to his own funeral.

The rest of the court was already in the mausoleum when the casket arrived, forming a ring around the pedestal. After a few circles, the casket came to rest on the silk. skekZok called out his chants and prayers while rest echoed him. skekTah looked himself over to see if anything was happening.

Was he getting more translucent?

…Yes. Yes, he was.

He turned, drifting to skekVar, his last living ally. Even with the chants, the General looked troubled. Hurt. He had not escaped that battle unscathed. He was hurt both physically and socially. Perhaps emotionally too, though he hid it well.

"skekVar," skekTah said. "Can you hear me?"

Did the General waver a moment in his words?

…No, he'd merely been clearing his throat for the next line of chants. Pity…

"skekVar." skekTah paused. "…General. I'm sorry that I wasn't strong enough to survive. That I died."

Still no reaction. skekVar truly could not hear him.

That wouldn't stop the Schemer from still speaking. He was growing more translucent with every prayer. Would he vanish completely at the end? Best to say what he wanted before then.

"It's better that you lived. You can ally with skekUng. You've had better luck than me in speaking with his alliance. If it was me…I'd probably stay a loner, like I did at the start. Heh! At least you won't have to worry about that. Heh…"

He couldn't see his lower half anymore and his upper half was rapidly becoming invisible. He could see through his hands now. Was he being sent to some higher place? Or would he just disappear?

"Heh… I'm pathetic. I couldn't even keep a few Gelfling from killing me. Am I that weak? Heh… Maybe skekMal was right. Castle life really did make me too complacent. I should've stayed in the castle today, should've listened to skekOk. Oh well…"

His hands were invisible yet he could still feel them. Sensation was present but he couldn't see himself. He certainly felt lighter now. Strange…

"Stay alive for me, skekVar. Just as I stayed alive for everyone else. I know you'll make it further than I could."

The room seemed to light up brilliantly as skekZok's chants hit a crescendo. The smoky orbs were thrown. The casket ignited into flame.

And skekTah was gone.


	12. Hunt

Anther key bit of skekTah's history and of his post-Gelfling Gathering biology. Poor guy...

Hunt

"Why am I doing this again?" skekTah asked.

"Because castle life is making you too complacent. And I need someone to help me fetch my arrows until I can shoot properly," skekMal replied.

"Oh," the Note-Taker muttered. "…Yay?"

He instantly regretted agreeing to go on this sudden trip out into the wilderness. skekMal had recently taken a liking to hunting and had been practicing with the Gelfling in the field for the past few months. Only recently dubbed the Hunter, skekMal wanted his shots to be precise and had been going out on his own for days at a time to practice in the Dark Wood.

Today, he had brought skekTah along through a series of reassurances, requests, and the recollection of past debts that the Note-Taker owed him.

Sometimes being the only record keeper among a bunch of brutal fighters was more of a boon than a benefit.

Thankfully, skekMal had already hacked away at the forest to make a traversable path for them. It had originally been a game trail that the Stonewood Gelfling used to track prey. Now it was skekMal's path into the depths of the Dark Wood, where he'd been practicing his archery.

"So, I'm just here to fetch arrows?" skekTah asked.

"And any small prey that I shoot," skekMal confirmed.

"…Ew," the Note-Taker mumbled in disgust. He certainly wasn't interested in touching dead things. "Why couldn't you bring skekVar or skekGra out here?"

"Both are too busy helping skekUng with his pet project," the Hunter snorted. "skekSa is out at sea on a trip. You were all that was left."

"Oh…" skekTah nodded in understanding.

He recalled skekUng's pet project now. Since Gelfling essence was discovered to restore youth, the court had secretly been snatching individuals from their guards to keep a steady supply of the stuff. Lately, the Gelfling had begun to notice the large amount of guards that had gone missing in the castle. In response to this, the Emperor had declared that a stronger guard would be put in place to lessen these mysterious losses.

In reality, the new guards would be their new method of capturing Gelfling in the field to increase their essence stock. Garthim, skekUng called them. Huge crustacean beasts with black carapaces and sharp claws and pincers that would react upon command and be given life by the Dark Crystal itself.

Last the Note-Taker had heard, skekUng was directly crafting the beasts while the Scientist focused on bringing them to life with the crystal. Rumor had circulated that these beasts would be left exclusively under skekUng's control. Perhaps this was the route that would finally give the larger Skeksis a title, something he had been coveting for several hundred trine and would at last give him political sway beyond skekTek's shadow.

Of course, the parts required to make the Garthim weren't lightweight. skekVar and skekGra were likely helping to haul and put the parts together, as ordered by the Emperor. skekUng was to get all the help he needed, after all. That had been Emperor skekSo's newest decree when the Garthim were proposed to him.

And since the Mariner was away at sea, that left the Note-Taker as skekMal's only available ally. The Hunter certainly wouldn't seek out anyone else to go with them. Most of the court was useless in the wilderness or out doing other tasks. The only one that might've sufficed was skekNa and the newly named Slave-Master was too preoccupied with the drained Podlings to go out on a hunt in the forest.

Not that skekTah was complaining. He has no interest in being in the same vicinity as the hook-handed Skeksis, whose cruelty streak had tripled since become Slave-Master. Better that skekNa stay at the castle, far from the vulnerable Note-Taker.

The trees parted, giving way to a clearing shaded thickly by the canopies above them. skekTah felt claustrophobic. The forest pressed in on all sides. Sunlight could barely get in.

No wonder it was called Dark Wood.

A few crude targets had been set up, most designed by the Gelfling while skekMal had been training with them. Most were thick wooden poles while others were sacks full of grain or sand, meant to mimic the forms of various beasts. Judging from the small piles of sand on the ground, skekMal had been hitting these targets particularly hard.

There were also puncture wounds and claw marks ripping across the bark of nearby trees, most behind the targets. Likely arrows that had missed their mark. skekMal had been complaining about having to climb to fetch them. skekTah could see where branches had broken, especially lower down the trunks.

skekMal wasn't exactly small or light. That was the Note-Taker. skekMal was both big and heavy, though not as much as skekUng or skekLach. It was enough to make climbing into trees burdensome. If the Note-Taker squinted, he was sure he could see some arrows high up along tree trunks that had simply never been retrieved by the frustrated Hunter.

The Note-Taker recalled Drenchen Gelfling having flying eels that could fetch thrown weapons for them. Muski, right? Perhaps the Hunter should attempt to acquire one at some point.

"Now sit there and watch. My aim is getting better," skekMal boasted, pulling out his bow and notching an arrow.

skekTah sat back quietly and watched his ally open fire on the targets. While most did not hit the painted X that marked the kill spot, skekMal got increasingly close with each attempt. Only a few zoomed into the forest, all hitting the ground close enough for the Hunter to fetch them himself.

Almost two hours passed before skekMal's confidence got the better of him and, aiming at a bird flying overhead, missed and landed his arrow in a tree.

"I'm guessing I have to get that," the Note-Taker said, rising.

What had skekMal been thinking? Sure, he'd hit a few small animals that had wandered into the clearing, but a bird was a completely different kind of target. Even the Note-Taker had realized within a moment of the arrow being loosed that skekMal would miss. Birds were simply too swift for the Hunter's current archery skill.

skekTah approached the tree, which stood on the edge of the clearing. Looking straight up, he couldn't even see the arrow. He hoped he recalled exactly where it had struck the trunk at—rather high up, unfortunately. This tree towered perhaps a hundred feet into the air.

Casting a bitter glare at skekMal, the Note-Taker began to carefully ascend.

He cursed himself for being small. For being light. For being the least likely to plunge from a broken branch in a tall tree. For being the best candidate for skekMal to take hunting with him. This wasn't fair. He was a writer, not a climber or an arrow fetcher. skekMal should be doing this himself!

But…he was being useful…right?

As a record keeper, he had little use in his alliance beyond gathering information and passing secrets along to his allies. He wasn't big or strong. He wasn't a fighter. He wasn't even intimidating. Maybe if he used his tail more, made it known to his allies, he could be viewed as a bigger threat…but as is, he was just a weakling writer that happened to get in amongst the military alliance thanks to a metalworking Skeksis that was now long dead.

Why was he still in skekVar's alliance, anyway? Why did they continue to tolerate his presence now that skekHak was gone? He hadn't brought in any groundbreaking information. No big secrets had been discovered that could change their alliance's position in the hierarchy. He was just there, taking up space and time that the General could put to better use elsewhere.

Yet skekVar kept him close. The General didn't out him from their alliance. He went out of his way to make it clear that the Note-Taker was allied with him. He kept skekTah in the know if something happened. He made sure the Note-Taker was okay.

And it wasn't just skekVar. His whole alliance did it.

skekSa took him out to sea a few times. skekGra told him of his travel plans as the newly-dubbed Conqueror to claim landmasses around Thra in the Emperor's name. skekMal took him out hunting today.

They could've easily abandoned skekTah now that the Machinist was dead. They had no obligation to keep him among them.

Yet they did.

The Note-Taker climbed higher up the tree. He could see the arrow now. He had to be fifty, sixty feet off the ground. The branches were thicker and studier up here. It was easier to find handholds to support his weight, lighter than most of his fellows but still heavier than anything else the tree had likely held.

As he climbed, he thought. His mind spiraled in perpetual circles.

He hadn't permitted himself to think too deeply about skekHak since he died over two hundred trine ago. After the funeral, he clung viciously to his alliance and carried on with life. He never forgot the Machinist. He just didn't let the other rule his thoughts, as he had those three horrible days following skekHak's death.

Yep, there was the arrow. Another twenty feet, perhaps. He called down to skekMal to let him know that the arrow was nearly in reach. Then he continued to climb.

He remembered something skekMal had told him on the trip into the Dark Wood. When you climbed, never look down. skekTah could imagine why. He had no intention of ever looking down. Not from this high up.

Ten more feet.

skekMal was shouting something. The Note-Taker couldn't hear it. He'd make the Hunter repeat it on the climb down.

Five more feet.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

skekTah's hand closed around the shaft of the arrow, easily tugging it loose of the trunk. He smiled, shouting down his victory to the Hunter.

And felt the branch under his feet give way.

The Note-Taker had no clue how or why the branch broke. Only that he instantly lost his grip and had no way to regain it. Panic surged through him instantly. He was falling the seventy-something feet to the ground far below.

And skekTah had no clue how he was to survive the drop.

.o.o.o.o.

urTao's speech cut off so suddenly that even the slow thought processes of the other urRu noticed. Long heads slowly turned toward their fellow, wondering why he had ceased to speak. It did not sound as if he had finished his request yet.

urTao the Planner lay sprawled on the sandy floor of the valley, unmoving. His dark gaze had dulled faintly. His breathing was shallow beneath his robes.

urIm the Healer and urNol the Herbalist abandoned their thoughts to check on the other. urIm was cautious with running his hands over the other. It took only moments to decipher the problem by touch.

"Broken," he stated. "From his other half."

"It will take much time to heal," urNol agreed.

Carefully, the urRu gathered to lift the other and moved as a unit with the prone urTao atop them. If urIm moved swiftly, he should be successful in killing the pain.

The damage, on the other hand, would likely be irreversible.

.o.o.o.o.

skekTah woke up to a burst of white-hot pain and skekMal's shouts. He blinked, the world suddenly too bright. The Hunter loomed over him, shock and terror on his face.

"skekTah! Can you hear me?" he demanded.

Why couldn't he nod? Why couldn't he move? All he felt was pain. What happened?

"skekTah!"

"Uh… A-ah…" All he could force out were choked sounds. He felt like there were shards of bone stuck in his throat. It took a few tries to make words form. "Wha…appened?"

"You fell," skekMal said.

Fell? Why did he fall? A fall shouldn't hurt this much. He'd tripped and fallen before.

…Oh.

Now he remembered. The tree. The arrow.

The arrow! Could that be why he was hurting? Had he landed on it?

"Can you move?" skekMal asked. "You have to try. If you can't…"

If he couldn't, what? What was skekMal so worried about? Of course he could move!

It was just…taking longer than usual…

skekTah closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. Then he poured all of his strength into his shoulders, his arms, his hands. Move, something move! Anything, just move! A fall shouldn't disable him this much!

skekMal gasped. "Good, good! Try something else!"

The Note-Taker focused downward, toward his legs. Even his tail if needed! Just move something. Anything at all!

"Oh, thank Thra! I thought your spine…"

skekTah opened his eyes. There was relief in the Hunter's eyes. Then he moved away, peeling off his heavy hunting cloak.

"Just keep moving a little, Note-Taker. I'll fashion a stretcher and get you home. Just don't stop trying to move!"

The situation had finally dawned on skekTah. He had fallen from the tree and, rather than dying, he had to have broken his back. That's why movement was so hard. But not impossible. He could still move. He had not broken his spine.

Already, the pain seemed to be ebbing. Probably the urRu tending to urTao. That felt nice…

skekMal rapidly fashioned a stretcher from his cloak and two sturdy branches torn from nearby trees. skekTah bit down on a wadded chunk of his own sleeve, torn from his arm by the Hunter, while skekMal quickly but carefully moved him from the ground to the stretcher. It would be a bumpy trip back since half of the stretcher would have to drag along the ground, but skekTah resolved to survive it.

His spine was not broken. He could still move.

.o.o.o.o.

The damage would heal, but his back would likely never be quite the same. This is what the Scientist declared upon checking over the Note-Taker for nearly two days. Even copious amounts of essence and time under the Dark Crystal's light could not undo the damage, only make the permanent parts less debilitating.

skekTah would be able to walk again, given enough time and care. But his back would remain crooked and painful, likely for the rest of his life. skekTek would design a brace to keep it from re-breaking and to support his spine against further damage. The Scientist had done all he could.

It would take upwards of three months for his back to heal properly. Until then, he was confined to his quarters, which remained unlocked so that skekTek could check up on him when required.

The pain was kept at bay by herbs that skekTek had been experimenting with to increase their healing properties. The experiments had failed but the plants could still kill pain, though to a lesser extent than desired. These, mixed with mintvine to keep his anxiety down, served as skekTah's medical staples.

He was kept in the know by his allies, primarily by skekVar. skekMal hunted for mintvine and skekTek's nameless herbs with every hunt he went on, vanishing for days on end in his hunts. skekTah didn't see much of the Hunter during those three months.

skekTah remained calm thanks to the mintvine. He was not dead. He would survive this. He would walk again one day.

Though permanently wounded, he would never let his back decide his actions. He would not be manipulated by pain.

He would live.


	13. Drink

Got this idea after rereading Shadows of the Dark Crystal. skekLach kept calling for wine...so surely drunk antics could ensue... Poor skekTah...

Drink

"More wine! More wine!"

"You've already drunk most of it, skekLach. Enough!"

The massive Census Taker merely guffawed, waving the tiny Note-Taker aside as he hunted through empty barrel after empty barrel for more wine. The last of it had been stowed away by the Spriton at skekTah's desperate request nearly half an hour ago. It was too late at night for this wild drinking to continue.

The Note-Taker, Scroll-Keeper, and Census Taker had come to Sami Thicket in the Spriton Plains to count all of the residents there for the census, as ordered by the Emperor. They had been travelling around the continent for many months now, counting every Gelfling they encountered and recording their names in skekLach's record. After the census for the day was complete, lodging was acquired and much partying and drinking usually ensued.

This was no different. The Gelfling were just too generous to their Lords when it came to their demands. And skekLach always demanded wine.

"Where is it? I know there's *hic* more wine!"

"There isn't. You drank it all," skekTah insisted, carefully stepping around the Census Taker. "skekOk, tell him."

"You did drink it all. It's time for bed, skekLach. We're making enough ruckus as is," the Scroll-Keeper nodded, adjusting his glasses. "It's late. I'm going to bed. Deal with skekLach, will you, Note-Taker?"

"What?" skekTah whipped around to face the scrawnier Skeksis. "Why me?"

"Because I dealt with him last time. Your turn," skekOk replied, turning away to head deeper into the chapel.

The Note-Taker clawed through his thoughts, sluggish with wine, until he dug up the last census they did. He squawked, head rising. Now he remembered.

"No, you didn't! I did!" he cried.

But skekOk was already gone.

skekTah should've remembered sooner. The Scroll-Keeper was the most prone to lying among them and he had done so here. As far as skekTah knew, skekOk had never handled skekLach after his voracious drinking sprees. It had always been skekTah dealing with him.

"Lying Scroll-Keeper! One of these nights, I swear…" he hissed bitterly.

It was much too late to curse the other out now. skekOk was gone. That left the Note-Taker alone with skekLach, who moved along the ground on his hands and knees in search of more wine. skekTah groaned. Dealing with the drunken Census Taker was never easy or fun.

"skekLach, stop," he urged, moving in front of the other to stop his haphazard movements. "There's no more wine. It's time for bed. You need sleep."

"Where's the wine? I know there's more," skekLach muttered, sounding almost sad.

"There will be more in the morning, maybe," skekTah reasoned, wrapping both of his scrawny arms around one of skekLach's. "Time for bed. Come on, get up."

skekLach slowly staggered onto shaking legs before he tipped forward. The Note-Taker yelped, straining under the full weight of a Skeksis that was twice his height and nearly triple his weight. skekLach giggled, hiccupping at random intervals as he reached down to ruffle skekTah's raven locks.

"Y-you know, Tah, this was fun."

Tah? When was he ever called Tah? The Note-Taker frowned, struggling to push skekLach upright.

"Leaving the castle, going to see the Gel… Gel… The people!"

"Yes, yes, very fun. Please stand up on your ow—waaah!"

Huge arms wrapped around him, pulling him flush against the Census Taker. He could hardly breathe now. skekLach threw back his head and guffawed.

"Just you and me and…the other guy… Needle nose with the…things…on his face…"

"skekOk," the Note-Taker choked out.

"Yeah, him," skekLach nodded.

"Please let go. I can't breathe!" skekTah hissed, squirming to try and get some more breathing room between them.

He was released, sending the Note-Taker straight to the floor. skekTah coughed, wheezing in relief. His ribs and back sang with pain. skekLach looked down at him, a hand across his beak, giggling like a Gelfling child would.

"You look funny down there. So tiny!"

"I'm not tiny. You're just big," skekTah corrected, slowly getting up. "I mean it, skekLach. Time to sleep. Come on."

He grasped the Census Taker's hand, maneuvering him through the chaos that was the chapel until they returned to where beds had been set up for the Skeksis Lords. skekOk was already in his, a whistling snore escaping him. skekTah was almost tempted to hit him, to do something awful to the sleeping Scroll-Keeper for making him do this again.

Later, that could be done later. Right now, he needed to put the larger Census Taker to bed.

"Here we are. Lay down. Time to sleep, skekLach," he insisted, gently tugging the other to his bed.

skekLach tipped onto it without a fuss, the frame creaking heavily under his weight.

Usually this was the hard part. Perhaps Thra saw fit to reward him for all his effort today. skekTah was relieved.

He turned to go to his bed, only to yelp when huge arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him backward. He twisted, spinning around in his captor's grip just as skekLach rolled onto his back. The Note-Taker was trapped on his front now, pinned to the Census Taker's chest and stomach by skekLach's iron grip.

"skekLach, let go!" he hissed, squirming to no avail.

"Can't sleep," skekLach mumbled, yawning.

"Yes, you can! You're about to!"

"Need something…"

"Then use your pillow! Not me!"

"Nighty night…"

"skekLach! No!"

He kept squirming, struggling to free himself, but there was no escape from the other Skeksis. He was trapped, belly-to-belly with the Census Taker. He could hear skekLach's heart booming in his chest and his loud open-mouthed snores in his ears. There was no escape.

"…Oh, forget it."

It was simply too late at night for this. skekTah's head pounded from too much wine. His eyelids felt heavy from lack of sleep. He had no energy left to fight.

He let himself sleep and hoped he awoke first in the morning.

.o.o.o.o.

"Pffft!"

"Uh… skekTah?"

"Nnn?" skekTah shifted, burrowing his beak against his pillow.

"skekTah? Uh, please wake up."

"Nnnnn…" He didn't want to. He felt warm and comfortable. Why was there such a thing as morning?

"Pfffffft!"

Okay, that was enough. Who was laughing?

skekTah opened his eyes and blinked, lifting his beak. Strange. Wasn't he a bit high up for being in bed? And it was unusually warm too. Very strange.

"Pfffffffft! Pah-hah-hah!"

He twisted, glaring at skekOk…who was…quite a ways down on the ground? Okay, something was very wrong here.

He turned forward and jolted. The Census Taker was staring at him. A quick scan of his surroundings confirmed the Note-Taker's worst fears.

He had fallen asleep on top of skekLach last night.

"Pah-hah! How? How did that happen?" skekOk cackled, wiping tears from his eyes.

skekTah glared at him, head pounding from the wine last night. He dragged his scattered memories together. He didn't like what he found.

"Apparently, skekLach decided he couldn't sleep alone or he wouldn't be able to sleep at all. So I ended up stuck up here while you snored away in bed," he replied in a rather snarky manner.

"Pah-hah-hah!" skekOk wheezed in laughter, holding his stomach. "Did anything…else…happen while you were up there?"

"Thra, I hope not. skekLach, let go of me."

The Census Taker realized he still had his arms around the other and promptly let go, arms thrown wide in embarrassment. skekTah shifted, carefully sliding down the other's side until he landed on the ground…and promptly face-planted because his legs were too shaky to hold him. skekLach flipped onto his side and rose from bed, carefully pulling the fallen Note-Taker to his feet along the way.

"This never happened," skekTah demanded, glaring at skekOk.

He knew skekLach wouldn't tell. This whole event was embarrassing for the both of them. skekOk, on the other hand, had been unaffected by the event and thus had no reason to keep it a secret. If anyone heard about this, any respect for them both would be gone in an instant.

"skekOk," skekLach prompted, straightening his robes.

"Pah-hah! Okay, okay. I won't tell," skekOk smiled.

skekOk was a natural-born liar. skekTah knew this now. To keep his beak shut, something equally embarrassing would need to be done to him.

So that morning, during breakfast, skekTah leaned just a bit to the left and knocked his elbow into the underside of skekOk's goblet. Red wine spilled over the Scroll-Keeper's face and clothes, drenching them pink. He squawked in shock before spinning to glare at skekTah.

"Oh, skekOk! How could you be so clumsy?" the Note-Taker said, smirking. "Why, if skekEkt ever heard of this, he'd reconsider giving you white robes."

skekOk shook in quiet rage in his seat. skekTah smirked. skekLach pointedly looked the other way, pretending not to see anything.

"Don't worry. I'm sure the Gelfling will wash them for you," skekTah reassured meanly. "After all, we are their Lords. What wouldn't they do for us?"

skekEkt never did find out about that incident. It was just one of many early secrets that the Note-Taker clung to, even when he became Schemer over a hundred trine later.


	14. Torture

This one was heavily inspired by events in the Dark Crystal story "Mortality" which can be found on and Archive Of Our Own. It is written by the lovely AzureLazuliBlue here on DA, who goes under the penname PalaeoPanthalassa on FN and AO3. Go check them out, they are amazing!

I received permission from them before writing this. It was a plot bunny that refused to leave after I read Mortality and since I'm fond of skekMal, I couldn't help but do this. skekTah sure is no knight in shining armor but he tries to help in his own tiny ways. lol

Torture

skekMal had performed no crime. Absolutely no crime!

Yet here the Hunter was before the Emperor, at the heart of the Skeksis Court, being sentenced for something that had been overlooked as minor for hundreds of trine—the continued usage of his secondary pair of arms.

But skekTah the Schemer knew the real reason—past crimes against the new favorite, skekLach.

You could barely even call them crimes! skekMal had made a personal call based on a growing trend between him and the ex-Census Taker. It had been the right decision for the situation.

skekLach and skekMal had had an arrangement several trine ago regarding the allocation of hunting trophies. skekMal went into the field, hunted his quarry, and killed it, bringing back any valuable parts. The meat went to the Gourmand, most furs and skins went to the Ornamentalist, and everything else was divided between the Hunter and the Census Taker, who'd begun supporting skekMal's hunts when the trophies started coming in. It had been a good trade between them.

But skekLach began to get greedy, taking more than his fair share of trophies from skekMal's hunts. Frustration became rage and the Hunter finally broke off their agreement, separating from the Census Taker and keeping everything from his hunts for himself. skekTah remembered that day far too well.

He also remembered how skekLach reacted—with total disregard and ignorance. The Census Taker, having nothing to do now that the Gelfling census was complete, decided to go out hunting for trophies himself.

His first hunt quickly became his last.

A ruffnaw, enraged at being disturbed by skekLach's less than careful hunting strategy, attacked him without hesitation. The Census Taker barely survived, losing his left eye and having his left arm mangled beyond hope of repair. Somehow, he managed to get back to the castle and survived the extreme amount of surgery required to amputate the lifeless arm and attach a metallic replacement limb to his shoulder in its place. It took months but skekLach lived.

And was rewarded, rather ironically and without any explanation, by being taken as the Emperor's new favorite, leaving a disgraced Chamberlain in the dirt to be forgotten.

Power has a way of changing things, skekTah recalled reading once. Change isn't wholly bad or good. It is merely new.

This change was completely bad, in the Schemer's opinion. Bad for his alliance. Bad for the court. Bad for everyone in the castle.

skekLach took his newfound position, and the power that came with it, and ran with it. There was no hesitance. No mercy. There was just the quick realization that he was no longer the underdog in the castle.

He had power.

So the Census Taker became the Collector, both of physical items…and of intangible things, like victory in the Gelfling raids. And among his first orders of business…was to right an old wrong, in his mind.

And that was where they were now—skekMal the Hunter, declared of crimes against Skeksis culture and etiquette, in reality merely being punished for disgracing the Collector in the past.

skekMal stood before the Emperor. The rest of the court formed a half-circle behind the Hunter, watching. skekLach stood by the Emperor's throne, a smirk curling onto his beak.

"skekUng, step forward!" the Emperor barked.

skekTah frowned. Why was skekUng approaching now? Did the Collector find another thing to punish the Hunter over?

"skekMal, you have violated common Skeksis culture by retaining the use of your secondary arms," the Emperor declared. "I hereby sentence you to have those arms removed. skekUng, draw your sword. You will perform the punishment."

skekTah's jaw dropped, among the rest in the court. skekVar began to bristle, a protest forming on his beak before the Mariner and Conqueror seized him discreetly. To step forward would risk them being dragged into the punishment by association.

As skekMal's allies, the greatest mercy they could perform was to stay back and remain silent.

But skekTah wished to scream. This was too much! If the Emperor had given skekMal a choice, the Hunter would've obediently ceased using his secondary arms immediately. The Schemer knew this as truth.

But there was no choice. No chance. Just instant punishment.

skekUng drew his curved sword and approached, stopping behind skekMal. The Hunter disrobed as ordered, baring his naked upper half. His smaller arms twitched, curling close to his ribs, as if the limbs knew what was about to happen to them.

skekMal looked to the Emperor for mercy. "Sire, please, let m—"

"Silence! You will take your punishment, skekMal!" the Emperor bellowed harshly.

"This is unfair!" skekTah hissed.

"There's nothing we can do. Stay put and keep your beak shut unless you want to go next, Schemer," skekGra hissed, a hand clutching the smaller Skeksis' shoulder in warning.

skekUng seized one of the tiny arms on his hand, yanking it straight so he could strike properly.

It was the wrong move.

skekMal snarled, whipping around and swiping at him in self-defense. skekUng backed up, instantly afraid.

Over the few decades since skekMal had gained his title, he had easily become one of the most ferocious of the Skeksis, as well as the most deeply feared. Other Skeksis spoke of him with dread in their voices. Even skekUng could not conceal his hesitance to anger the other.

Yet, compared to the anger of the Emperor, skekUng had no choice but to proceed.

"Get back down on your knees, Hunter! Unless you wish for an even worse punishment!" skekUng snarled, teeth bared.

skekMal hissed in response but indeed returned to his knees. The spines on his back bristled warningly. The Hunter would not sit idly by as this happened, despite wanting nothing more than to cease displeasing the Emperor. His instinct of self-preservation was simply too strong to ignore.

"This won't work. skekMal will probably kill skekUng in the process," skekSa muttered.

"And that will bring even worse punishments down on skekMal," skekGra agreed.

"He'll never sit still for this. Nobody would!" skekVar agreed. "There must be something…"

skekTah looked away from his allies to the center of the throne room…and froze, eyes meeting skekMal's gaze. There was anger and hurt in those wild eyes.

But there was also fear. A plea for help.

There was nothing the Schemer could do. If he ran out there to help skekMal, he'd be punished too. Any bid to help would meet failure. There was nothing…

…But there was.

skekUng again moved to grab at one of the minor arms and again skekMal hissed and whipped around, teeth bared in a display of total violence.

"skekMal, stay sti—"

"Sire! If you'd please let me speak!" skekTah said, stepping forward and deftly dodging skekVar's attempts to grab him.

The Emperor was clearly annoyed at this interruption. "What is it, Schemer? Do you wish to jo—"

"skekMal will never sit still for this! He'll need someone to restrain him if you have any hope of inflicting this punishment on him," skekTah declared.

The rest of the court turned to chatter quietly amongst themselves. Much agreement arose from those quiet mutters. skekUng snorted before looking toward the throne.

It was clear. The Schemer spoke the truth.

"Fine! General, step for—"

"I volunteer to restrain him, if you'll allow it," skekTah said.

"You?" skekUng snorted out a laugh. "You? The tiny Schemer? Restrain the Hunter? Sire, you cannot seriously think h—"

"I'll allow it, since he boldly stepped forward to inform me of this," the Emperor cut in, eyeing the Schemer critically. "But fail, Schemer, and you will join the Hunter in his punishment."

"…Understood, sire," skekTah nodded, shoving back his fear.

skekTah approached the Hunter, carefully sinking to his knees before the other. He reached out, grasping hands far larger and much stronger than his own. He looked up at that scarred face, the face of his ally, and tried to weakly smile.

"I'm sorry," he muttered.

skekMal huffed, tipping his beak forward to expose his back, and thus his minor arms, to skekUng. "I'm the one who should be sorry, for what I'm about to do to you."

skekTah flinched when his hands were gripped tightly in skekMal's. These were hands that had torn branches from trees, broken the bones of Podlings and young Gelfling. These powerful hands could crush his frail ones like twigs. The Schemer would be lucky to get away unscathed after this.

That was okay. It was being done out of mercy. He would sacrifice his hands so skekMal could keep his dignity, could take this punishment without failure.

skekMal snarled when the cruel amputation began, toothy beak jamming against skekTah's collarbone. skekTah stiffened, his hands clutched in a violent iron grip. He could feel claws tearing into his flesh, drawing blood to spatter against his robes. The Schemer bit his tongue and kept his gaze down.

skekMal would not scream, so skekTah would not cry.

He heard the wet thump as one of those tiny, dexterous limbs hit the chamber floor. He could hear the gagging of the Ornamentalist, likely turning away to avoid witnessing the other limb being cut away. Nobody was pleased to witness this except for those nearest to the throne—the Emperor and the Collector.

skekTah forced himself to focus on the feeling of blood dripping from his hands. skekMal's claws had dug deep. There might be scars left behind. The blood felt warm and wet, dripping along his palms, down his fingertips to drip steadily onto his robes, dying them red and brown in spots, depending on the fabric the drops landed on.

With the second thump, skekUng finally stepped away. skekMal choked, leaning heavily against the tiny Schemer. skekTah permitted himself to raise his gaze, though only enough to meet eyes with those beyond skekUng. skekVar, skekGra, and skekSa all looked a mix of angry, disgusted, and miserable. The rest of the court looked sickened but held their tongues.

"It is done!" skekUng declared, bloodied sword raised.

The Emperor rose from his throne. "Good. Let that be a lesson to anyone that chooses to be deviant. You will be punished for it. skekTah, clean up this mess while you're down there and get this wretch out of my throne room!"

The Emperor walked away, skekLach on his heels. The rest of the court promptly scattered, most choosing to flee now that the punishment had been dealt. Soon only skekUng, skekSil, skekNa, skekTek, and the members of skekTah's alliance were left. skekLach lingered in the doorway, pausing in his exit to look back upon the scene he had caused.

skekMal wheezed, blood drenching his back. skekTah carefully tipped him backward so he could unlace the hunting cloak draped over his mantle, tossing it carefully over the Hunter's back to cover the wounds. Slinking to his side, he struggled to get skekMal to his feet. The Schemer turned, ready to call his allies over to help.

"Not so mighty now, are you, Hunter?"

skekTah stilled his tongue, eyes narrowing. skekUng wasn't quite done with them. The punishment was complete, yet the larger Skeksis wasn't quite off of whatever high he'd been on through it.

Power was a deadly drug, skekTah realized.

"Perhaps this will remind you that no matter what you kill, you're still no better than the rest of us. Only now, you can safely call yourself different, now that you don't have these anymore!"

skekUng kicked at one of the amputated limbs, sending it rolling to rest at the Schemer's feet.

skekMal was too weak to really register skekUng's words or actions. skekTah was left to deal with this alone.

"So mighty, yet a weakling Schemer could restrain you! Makes one wonder how dangerous you really are, Hunter. If only the Gelfling could see you now!"

skekTah trembled. Hadn't skekUng had enough yet? skekMal had been punished, crippled irreparably. Was this extra taunting really necessary? skekMal couldn't even respond to any of it!

"How did it feel, Schemer? To hold your own ally down like that, knowing you were letting him suffer. To hold so much power over the Hunter. Was it good?"

"Stop it," skekTah muttered softly.

"It felt good, didn't it? Perhaps I won't hold as much power as skekLach does now, but this is a close second. To knock the great Hunter down a few notches felt wonderful!"

"Stop it," skekTah hissed, teeth bared and eyes narrowed warningly.

"Awwww!" skekUng smirked. "Is someone feeling bad? Then why did you help hurt him? You can't talk if you were an accomplice in this, Schemer."

"skekVar, come he—"

"Can't the Schemer defend himself? Need to call the General to save him?" skekUng taunted.

"Knock it off, skekUng. You did your job. Now let me do mine!" skekTah hissed.

"I thought your job was taking notes and spying on people. I didn't know it was helping your own allies lose limbs. Hah! Maybe it'll teach the Hunter to pick his allies better."

skekTah didn't know what caused it. All he knew was that something inside of him snapped. He was sick of this power play game. He was sick of hearing skekUng talk. He was sick of being hurt. He was just plain sick.

Of everything.

.o.o.o.o.

"GAAAAAAAHHH?!"

"skekUng!"

"Lord skekUng!"

skekTah blinked, the world snapping back into focus. skekMal had been shifted to lean against his left, the Schemer's left arm curled around him to keep the larger upright. skekTah's right arm was extended, bent at the elbow to arc in front of his face, fingers hooked and palm facing his beak. There was blood on his middle and index claws, darker than the rest of the blood on his hands.

skekUng stumbled back a few steps, sword abandoned on the floor, a hand clapped to the left side of his beak, close to the tip. There was a trickle of dark blood leaking between his fingers. skekNa and skekTek were lurching for the other, panicked.

"Let me see. skekUng, let me see it!" skekTek hissed, yanking the hand away. "Oh Thra, it's not as bad as I thought. Just messy."

"Looks deep," skekNa grumbled, leaning in to look with his one eye. "Will it scar?"

"Not if I tend to it right away. At least, I hope not," the Scientist croaked.

skekTah blinked curiously, trying to dredge through his memories. He'd blanked out a moment ago. What had happened? Did skekMal attack skekUng?

But then why was there blood on his claws? Blood the same color as skekUng's.

"Let me help."

skekMal's weight was shifted, leaving the Schemer's left side bare. skekVar was supporting the aching Hunter now. skekSa slunk to skekMal's right, slipping the limp arm around his own shoulders.

"What happened?" skekTah asked.

"You struck skekUng," skekGra replied, circling in front of him. "Best get moving. Too many witnesses. Better to leave before word hits the Emperor."

"I hit skekUng?" skekTah choked, fear striking him deeply.

"Just a little strike. On the beak. Pretty sure it'll scar. skekTek's too panicked to treat it properly," the Conqueror explained, nudging the Schemer along. "skekLach saw. So did the Chamberlain."

"What if the Emperor is told?" skekTah whimpered.

"skekUng will deny it."

"What? Why?" skekTah yelped, confused.

They were out of the throne room now, moving steadily down the hall toward the bedchambers. skekVar and skekSa guided skekMal, half-carrying him as they walked. skekGra lingered behind with skekTah. His voice was low, conserved to the point where only the Schemer could hear it.

"skekUng will never admit that he was struck by you, the weak Schemer. He'd rather face a rakkida in battle. skekNa and skekTek will back him up in whatever lie he tells," the Conqueror explained. "The Chamberlain and the Collector will keep this to themselves as bargaining chips. Neither of them have anything against you, but holding anything over skekUng's head could net them benefits in the Gelfling raids. You'll be fine, Schemer. If the Emperor hears of this, he'll get something very far from the truth."

"Oh…" skekTah sighed in relief. "Then I'll be okay."

"You'll be fine. Nobody's got any problem with you just yet," skekGra reassured. "Nothing that your own cache of secrets couldn't protect you from."

skekVar turned into his own quarters, skekSa helping the Hunter limp inside. With a light nudge, skekGra sent the Schemer after them. The Conqueror let himself pause for a moment, reflecting on the scene he had witnessed back in the throne room.

 _It was so fast the skekGra almost hadn't seen it. The Schemer lashed out with his right hand, claws extended, and slashed two deep furrows into the bottom edge of skekUng's upper beak. skekUng shrieked, leaping back. A thin burst of blood decorated the throne room floor, bright red against dark stone._

 _"_ _Wh-what? Schemer!" skekUng snarled, hand clapped to his beak. He pulled the limb back and his jaw dropped at the blood decorating his palm. "You… You…"_

 _The larger Skeksis froze when he looked at the Schemer. skekTah's gaze had hardened from its usual soft nervousness, becoming akin to icy chips of gold. His demeanor had changed completely and sent shivers even through the Conqueror._

 _Danger._

 _"_ _Stop it, skekUng," skekTah said curtly. "Or else."_

 _skekUng stumbled back, blade dropping from his hand. Where confidence and cruelty had shone, there was fear. Fear of something that should not be feared._

 _skekGra could've laughed. For the first time in over six hundred trine, skekUng was afraid of the Schemer._

The strange cold spell had been broken the instant the sword had hit the chamber floor. That much, the Conqueror had noted immediately. Whatever had come over skekTah had fled in that brief moment.

skekTah seemed to have no recollection of his strike, his demeanor, or his own warning to skekUng. But skekUng did not know that. The fear, though diluted now, was still there.

skekGra debated telling the Schemer about it. Perhaps it would boost the smaller Skeksis' confidence. If he could tap into that, it could be a good defense against Skeksis that could mean him harm in the future.

Later, he decided. He would tell skekTah later. For now, they had a united duty to care for their wounded ally, the Hunter. There would be time to speak of skekTah's behavioral change afterward, perhaps.

Though it had been rather amusing to watch, skekGra decided. It would be an event skekUng would likely never forget, even if the marks faded with age.

Today, the weakling Schemer had proven that he could be just as dangerous as the mighty Hunter.


	15. Dream

I just love to make my poor dude suffer...

Dream

"skekTah…"

"Nnnn?"

skekTah opened his eyes and lifted his head. A sharp knocking greeted his ears. He sighed, climbing out of bed. The Rose Sun was high up in the sky. He had slept in late.

Which means he was being scolded now.

The Schemer opened the door, expecting to see skekUng on the other side. Instead, he jolted in shock, spines rising beneath his mantle. His beak dropped open in disbelief.

Before him stood skekVar, a Skeksis who had been dead for fifty trine now.

"What's that look for, skekTah?" skekVar asked.

"You… You're…" Words refused to form.

"Come on. You missed the noon meal. We were getting worried," the General said, turning to walk away.

skekTah bolted into action, leaping after the General. He didn't care how indecently dressed he was in his thin sleeping robe. skekVar was alive!

That shouldn't be possible…

skekVar led him down the hall, talking about idle things like how skekSil and skekUng had bickered again today, or the grand meal that the Gourmand had made that the Schemer had missed out on. The General even got him mintvine to chew on during their walk. skekTah's stomach growled appreciatively at the treat and he indulged himself.

"How?"

skekVar blinked at him in confusion. "How what? How did I get the mintvine?"

"No! How are you here?" skekTah demanded.

"…I walked?" skekVar answered awkwardly.

"No! You're…" He couldn't say it. He just could tell skekVar that he was dead. "You're…gone…"

"Gone where? I haven't gone much of anywhere since we claimed the castle," skekVar pointed out. "Where would I go?"

"No, not that kind of gone! I mean…that you…"

"Speak clearly, skekTah. I'm not understanding what you're trying to say to me," skekVar requested gently.

"You're dead!" skekTah finally barked.

skekVar paused, baffled. "Dead? Me? How? I don't feel dead. Or look it."

He turned to look further down the hall toward one of the balconies. skekTah followed his gaze and froze. Silhouetted against the light of the Great Sun were the forms of other Skeksis. He knew them all and felt his heart clench tightly in his chest.

"skekMal! Do I look dead to you?" skekVar called.

"Dead? Why?" skekMal the Hunter asked.

"You look fine to me," skekSa the Mariner admitted.

"What's all this talk of looking dead?" skekGra the Conqueror demanded.

"Well, skekTah certainly looks dead tired, if that's what it is! Heheh!" skekLi the Satirist teased, a hand over his beak in jest.

"Apparently, I'm dead," skekVar replied, guiding the Schemer over to them.

"How so?" skekHak the Machinist asked. "Who said that? skekUng?"

"No. skekTah did," skekVar replied.

"skekTah? Why would he say that?" skekHak asked, looking down at the Schemer.

"Because…you all are?" skekTah offered weakly.

"Funny, I don't feel dead. Right as rain, really," skekSa shrugged.

"Nobody's dead, skekTah. Get it through your brainy head," skekGra grumbled, tapping skekTah's skull warningly.

"Sorry, skekGra," skekTah apologized, head bowed.

He didn't understand. How was this possible? Everyone he knew that was dead…wasn't dead. Had it all been some twisted dream? A nightmare?

Yes, that had to be it. This was reality. Nobody had died.

Except…

Something small pounced upon his back, sending skekTah toppling forward. The group parted, guffawing and laughing at the display. Thin arms were wrapped around his neck and he could feel clawed feet at his hips, hunting for purchase. Thin, tinkling laughter rang in his ears.

"Got him! Did you see that, guys? I got him!"

"You got him, skekYi! Good job!" skekMal cackled.

skekYi? No, he was…

skekTah twisted around and his beak met with one he hadn't seen since the division. That thin, narrow beak and those bright eyes. A Skeksis, smaller and younger than him—smaller than even skekOk—dressed in light blue and purple and white robes that stuck out in the gloom of the castle.

"Got you, skekTah!" skekYi cried, smiling widely.

skekTah couldn't help himself. He cried. He broke down right there, sinking to his knees. skekYi ceased laughing. Everyone did.

"skekTah? I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?" skekYi chirped in concern, slipping off of his back.

"What's wrong, skekTah?" skekSa croaked.

"Speak to us, boy! What's the matter?" skekGra demanded.

"Don't cry," skekHak pleaded, sinking down beside him.

"I just… I'm so…so happy…" skekTah choked.

"Then why are you crying?" skekVar asked.

"Tears of joy," skekLi joked, though his smile seemed a bit forced now.

"Come now, enough of this. Stop blubbering like a Gelfling child, skekTah." A hand grasped his beak, tipping his head up so a handkerchief could wipe at his face. When the tears were scrubbed away, skekTah was shocked to find it was skekMal doing that. "Don't let skekUng see you like this or he'll jump all over you for it."

skekTah sniffled. "I missed you. All of you."

"Missed us? How could you miss us?" skekSa asked. "You saw us yesterday evening."

No, he hadn't. He hadn't seen them in many trine now. It felt like too long since he'd last seen them, heard them, touched them.

But he knew this was a dream now. skekYi was absolutely dead. There was no questioning that. As much as he wished for it, this could not be reality.

"What a beautiful day," skekHak noted, looking out over the land around them. "skekUng should be calling the Garthim back soon. Fresh essence should settle the Emperor down. He's been cranky today."

"He's always cranky," skekGra snorted.

"What about the prophecy?" skekTah asked.

"Prophecy?" skekVar questioned. "What prophecy?"

"I haven't heard no prophecy. What kind of things has skekZok jammed into your head now?" skekMal snarled.

There was no prophecy here. The Gelfling had not rebelled. Life was perfect.

skekTah slowly rose and moved to the balcony rail, joining the rest in looking over the sun kissed landscape. It looked wonderful.

"I'll miss you," he said.

"Miss us?" skekSa repeated.

"Are you going somewhere, skekTah?" skekVar asked.

skekTah reluctantly nodded. "I'm waking up."

He hugged each of them tightly, trying not to cry. It hurt to see the confusion on their faces, but the world was already beginning to fade and twist on the edges. The dream was ending.

"Goodbye," he choked.

Everything shattered into a million pieces.

And skekTah blinked, staring at the canopy of his bed. His eyes were wet. He slowly sat up and rested a hand on his face, fingers curling over his beak.

His throat stung. His chest ached. His eyes burned. Tears ran down his cheeks unchecked, decorating his sleeping robe.

He hated dreams. They always seemed too real.


	16. Nightmare

More suffering for skekTah.

I swear I'll write something happy with him soon. Really.

Nightmare

He was back in this stupid gray world again.

skekTah hissed, searching for TahTao. He knew the urSkek was here. He always was.

There was no hint of gold. No sign of that ancient wisdom.

TahTao was not here.

"One."

skekTah froze, spines bristling. He spun and hissed. An even worse figure had appeared. He told himself it was nothing more than an apparition, but it did nothing to quell the fear growing in his breast.

urTao the Planner stood there, walking staff in hand, watching him with those deep, dark, soulful eyes.

"What are you doing here?" skekTah hissed, tail spines rattling in warning. "Where is TahTao?"

"He is here. We are here. We are him. He is us," urTao replied.

"I know that, you cotton-brained moron!" skekTah snarled.

"He can be here," urTao offered, moving forward.

"I don't want him here. I don't want you here! I want to go home!"

"We can do that. Just take my hand," urTao said, extending one hand.

"No! You're lying to me!"

"I do not lie. That is your job," urTao recalled.

"Wake up! Wake up! I want to wake up!" skekTah cried, clutching his head and stomping a foot. "Wake up!"

"We can both wake up, skekTah," urTao said gently, having drawn nearer than the Skeksis felt comfortable with. "Just take my hand."

"…No," skekTah choked, backing up until he hit that invisible wall again. "No…"

"This will all end then. Just take my hand," urTao said. "Both of our suffering can end."

skekTah certainly wouldn't call this dream suffering. Annoying, maybe. Frightening, certainly. But suffering? He didn't believe it was.

Was it?

"Take my hand," urTao requested, hand still extended.

skekTah wanted to wake up. This was just a dream. Nothing urTao did could hurt him here.

He reached out and took urTao's hand.

urTao smiled, but it was all wrong. Crooked and twisted in ways no urRu should smile. It was a Skeksis smile. It was horrifying to look at.

"Now we will be one again."

"What? No!" skekTah squawked.

He couldn't free his hand. urTao's hand was suddenly iron, like a shackle with no key. skekTah could not free himself. He lashed out with his other arm, not caring what damage he sustained. He wanted out!

skekTah cut and clawed, bleeding wounds slicing across both of their bodies. urTao seemed unfazed by the damage. The gray floor turned an awful red while the ceiling and walls became a dazzling white. It was blinding.

"This is what is necessary. When single shines the triple sun. The two made one," urTao chanted.

"No! Nonononononono!" skekTah wailed, swiping blindly.

Heat. His hand was burning now. It was horrible. skekTah screamed, writhing. This pain, this awful agony, it was familiar.

Melting. Being torn apart. Screams of pain echoing around him. What was once gentle and warm, now agonizing.

The crystal! The division!

Oh Thra, no! Not this again!

skekTah turned his head to the sky and screamed.

And bolted upright, suddenly free. He looked around in a panic, briefly mistaking dark stone for gray walls. He was in his room, safe and sound. This was no dream.

He was free.

skekTah shivered, wheezing breaths escaping him. He wrapped his arms around himself, disgusted to find that he was soaked in a cold sweat. No wonder he felt so freezing.

"A nightmare," he muttered, combing a hand through his black lair. "Just a nightmare. It wasn't real…"

But it had felt real. Too real, even.

He found himself looking over his right hand for burns. Nothing but the faint white scars he'd gained from skekMal's amputation punishment. His hand was intact. No burns.

"It wasn't real…"

He was safe. He was home. He was Skeksis. skekTah. Two. Himself.

He chose not to sleep for the rest of that night. He took a bath and cleaned himself up. Then he worked on his notes. Anything to keep himself awake.

He would not fall asleep again.


	17. Truth

Decided to churn this out between move-in events to and from my dorm. I'll be more stable in environment come Sunday.

This takes places directly after the Legends manga.

Truth

skekTah watched the last of the Gelfling flee from the castle. It was hopeless to attempt to pursue them now. The Garthim were all destroyed, killed by Gelfling. The Gelfling themselves fled atop Mounders, huge four-legged beasts that served as grazers unless frightened.

The Emperor's order of fresh essence would be greatly delayed. Almost every Gelfling in the castle that hadn't been drained had escaped. It had been disastrous. No one was quite sure how it had happened.

 _"_ _skekLach freed us!"_

skekTah frowned. Even in light of the confession by the only Gelfling left in the castle, the whole thing had been swept under the rug thanks to the Chamberlain's desperate attempt to usurp skekLach's position.

It had been a stupid move to pick Trial by Fire, even if it was skekSil's best event. skekLach was bigger and stronger by comparison. It had been too easy of a victory for the Collector.

The Schemer didn't care much for that. What interested him was the quiet conversations muttered between the contestants and their impromptu assistants in the trial, the ones who piled rocks in their arms—skekVar and skekSil, and skekTek and skekLach.

He'd seen how jittery the Scientist had grown lately. Something had happened between skekTek and the Collector, something very recent. But what was it?

He couldn't directly ask. The Scientist was allied with skekUng the Garthim Master, someone skekTah wasn't particularly fond of. skekUng didn't like him much, so tangling with his alliance could cause further tension between skekUng and skekVar, his own alliance's leader. skekUng and skekVar held a better relationship between them and skekTah didn't wish to ruin that with his meddling.

And, though it would be easier, he couldn't ask skekVar directly either. The General had been ordered only a few days ago to pledge his loyalty and services to the Collector due to a mishap involving the Emperor and his scepter. The Schemer hadn't been given all of the details and hadn't dared to ask his leader about them. All he knew was that this had put great strain on the General and thus on everyone else in their alliance, none of who particularly favored the Collector.

Pestering either skekLach or skekSil was asking for trouble. skekLach was the favorite, so anything said to him could go back to the Emperor or be used against the Schemer at a later date. The Chamberlain had been encroaching on his position, spying and digging up secrets to his own use, and would certainly not be honest to skekTah in his inquiries.

That left him with nothing, no leads among his fellows to go on.

Which left only the Gelfling that had declared skekLach as their savior.

That in itself was a puzzle. The Gelfling had only known the Skeksis by title, if anything, since the Gelfling raids began. Their true names had become hidden after the Gelfling Gathering and no Gelfling should be able to recall them now. Yet this one had known skekLach's. The Gelfling was certainly too young to recall it. Perhaps the name had been passed down in stories?

No, that was unlikely. Outside of the census, skekLach had done nothing notable outside of the castle that the Gelfling could've heard about. That was skekMal's primary job and the Gelfling only knew him as the Hunter, nothing else. They didn't even know he was a Skeksis.

Then how did this one know the Collector's name? Puzzling…

The Schemer abandoned the balcony. There was a grand feast going on downstairs to celebrate skekLach's victory over the Chamberlain in the trial. It was a silly thing to celebrate but it took worried minds off of the Gelfling and the prophecy. It was an event to distract themselves, nothing more.

skekTah didn't want to be distracted, so he left shortly after the event began to go to the balcony above. Now he left again, this time for the Chamber of Life.

The lab was empty of Skeksis, only holding the remains of the mangled life forms that the Scientist experimented on. Podlings dangled in thick wicker cages, wailing for help. The Schemer ignored all of the noise and moved to the back, where the heavier cages carried by the Garthim were placed. All but one was empty.

Inside the nearest cage, stuffed hastily there by the Schemer while skekUng had been busy directing his Garthim during the escape, was the only Gelfling that hadn't escaped. It was to be drained later tonight for the Emperor but right now, the tiny thing lived. It huddled near the back of the cage, cowering, eyes huge as it regarded the Schemer.

"Gelfling," he stated.

"I-I t-told you w-what you w-wanted!" it croaked, face streaked with tears.

"I want to know more about the Skeksis that freed you."

The others had been satisfied with just a name. skekTah was smarter than that. He doubted a name was all that the Gelfling knew about their rescuer. He wanted more detail, description. skekLach's reaction seemed rather genuine, so he couldn't have freed the Gelfling.

So who did?

"What did this Skeksis look like? Tell me all you can remember and I'll bargain for your freedom."

That was a lie. skekTah would never be able to do such a thing. The Emperor may see him as a traitor if he tried. The Emperor required this essence in light of the escape by the rest of his essence stock. To deny him this one was a crime.

But the Gelfling didn't know this. The sudden hope in its eyes told him this. So he continued to string the foolish creature along. This was what he did best, after all.

He smiled as warmly as he could. "Tell me and I'll have you set free," he lied.

The Gelfling slowly scurried forth, standing up so skekTah wouldn't need to bend and strain his braced back so much. It rocked uncertainly on the balls of its feet before nodding. It gave a wobbly smile and spoke.

"Well, it was a big Skeksis."

They were all big compared to Gelfling. Not helpful.

"It had claws and teeth and a pointed beak. It looked funny."

Again, they all had those. Useless.

"It wore mostly red."

There! That was what he wanted. This was useful information.

"How much red?" skekTah asked.

Quite a few in the court wore red. It was the distinguishing colors of skekZok the Ritual-Master and skekSil the Chamberlain. skekShod the Treasurer wore red strips of cloth atop his head to pin his graying hair back. Quite a few others wore lesser red robes. Even skekTah wore a faded red robe, one of the layers used to cover his brace, though it was buried beneath heavier coverings currently.

"A lot! And a black frill around its neck! It had a pointy thing on a belt around its waist too!"

All of that was very helpful. skekTah filtered through it to paint a picture in his head. What he found was certainly shocking, but not as much as he had hoped it would be. If anything, perhaps it should have been obvious.

skekSil the Chamberlain had freed the Gelfling and pinned the blame on skekLach.

"So that's how you knew his name," skekTah muttered. "He told you that…"

Clever, that was clever. Of course the rest were too wrapped up in the declaration of Trial by Fire to interrogate the Gelfling further. Probably something else that skekSil had planned. This had been intricate, just the kind of thing the Chamberlain was good at.

This had all been a bid to reclaim his position as favorite, to force the Collector to trip up. Only the Chamberlain didn't take into account that he could lose in the event.

And he did.

skekTah sighed. It had been clever…but not clever enough to best skekLach. Even caught off guard, the Collector had nonetheless prevailed over the Chamberlain. It would take a much more elaborate plot than this to take the Collector down.

All the Chamberlain did was rob the Emperor of vital essence.

Not that the Emperor knew it was skekSil that did it. Blaming skekLach, his favorite, would be unbelievable. By now, the Emperor had probably conjured up some form of explanation for who to blame for this and why. Perhaps he would even blame the Chamberlain anyway for wasting time that could've been used to help the Garthim Master recapture more Gelfling.

That would be amusing.

skekTah turned from the cage and walked away, leaving the Chamber of Life. He ignored the Gelfling's cries for reassurance of its freedom. It would be drained tonight, as planned. There was no need to confirm or deny this, no need to speak at all. He had what he wanted. The Gelfling would face its fate alone.

Now came the real dilemma.

With this information, he could set the Chamberlain even further back in his already disgraced position. Or he could give this to the Collector to settle his job and be free of skekLach for a while, safely off radar as skekTah liked to be. Or he could give it straight to the Emperor and perhaps secure his position in the same manner that skekLach had.

So many choices. Which one would pay the highest to get this juicy secret?


	18. Protect

Had this one half-written and waiting around, so I decided to finish it in my free time today. More terror on skekTah's end, along with perspective from another member of his alliance.

Protect

How skekTek ran out of herbs that he claimed to have a stranglehold on the stock of, skekTah had no clue. Only that the Scientist had wrung his hands this morning and declared that he was out of them. The Note-Taker's back was in intense pain and the herbs used to kill it were all gone.

So, after snapping rather viciously at skekTek for going back on his word to keep a hefty supply on hand at all times for him, skekTah went to skekNa to gather a few Podling slaves. His bad mood must've been evident because the Slave-Master didn't argue against his request, simply snagged the first lot to pass by and ordered them to do what the Note-Taker ordered. skekTah stomped off with them and headed for the catacombs, then out into the quarry beneath the castle.

If skekTek hadn't been so incompetent, this wouldn't be necessary. But it was. So here he was, the crippled Note-Taker of the Skeksis Court, hunting for herbs in a dying field several hours trek from the castle.

Everything was dying in the land around the castle now. The Dark Crystal was sucking the life from the planet. That's why he had to come this far just to find plant life. Skarith was lifeless now.

The Podling slaves ambled around him, mindlessly searching for the herbs based on the few leaves from the plant that skekTah had remaining in his pockets. They were slow and stupid thanks to the drain, which was helpful in keeping noise down and obedience up, but their knowledge of plant life was gone. That'd be very useful to have right about now.

The field itself was on the verge of death but the Note-Taker didn't want to go any further from the castle than he already was. He'd already gone further than he liked as is. If something happened out here, nobody would see or hear him. The Podling slaves could be used as shields against attack but that wouldn't help in his escape.

He lifted his head and looked around again. Long yellow grass swayed on all sides, tall stalks brittle and bent from the wind.

It was eerie, how dead the world was becoming. No wonder the Gelfling were scared, calling upon the Lords of the Crystal to help them. So far, they hadn't realized that it was Thra's heart causing this, not some disease of the soil. The Emperor wished to keep it that way. The less the Gelfling knew, the better.

skekTah frowned, glaring at the dry dirt under his claws. No sign of the herbs. No sign of anything useful! Just grass and a few bugs. He hated bugs! He rose swiftly, disgusted and angry.

His back cracked loudly, sending a fresh wash of pain over him. His ribs sang, his shoulders and hips ached, and his neck was stiff. He snarled bitterly, cursing the Scientist.

"Move!" he barked, kicking at a slave and hissing in agony when his knee protested against the violent movement.

Perhaps he was growing more volatile over time. Or maybe the effect of being in pain for so long was making him reckless. Anger had a way of blinding those it possessed. skekTah had seen this happen to skekUng and skekMal and skekGra too many times over the hundreds of trine they had existed.

If he'd been paying attention, maybe he would've noticed that the grass harbored more life that he would've liked. Life that had been stalking him and his band of slaves for over an hour, circling ever closer with each pass they made. Had the Podlings not been drained, they'd have seen the signs declaring what lived in this field and warned the Skeksis Lord against going further.

But he didn't notice. And they couldn't warn him.

Anger and pain blinded one. Obedience and mindlessness blinded the rest.

It was a recipe for disaster. They were doomed, prey led to slaughter by a chain of their own design.

And a slaughter, it would be.

.o.o.o.o.

Four more territories were now claimed in the name of Emperor skekSo. His loyal Conqueror, the furthest traveled and among the most powerful of his disciples, was finally coming home from another trek into the boundless world of Thra. It would take another trek or two like this one before Thra was completely under Skeksis rule.

Conquering was not always easy. Sometimes, skekGra could lie and promise and cast doubt over current rulers until Emperor skekSo was named as their supreme ruler. Other times, it required a feat of brutal strength or a bloody war. Through it all, skekGra stood tall and victorious. No land he visited had resisted accepting Skeksis power.

Frankly, the Conqueror was happy to be going home. He needed to see skekTek about a few injuries he had sustained. He wanted to reassure himself of the continued survival of his allies. He would finally sleep in a proper bed that he recognized and could feel just a bit safer in. He was home.

Or would be, in a few hours.

He could see the castle in the distance, a tall spire against a bright sky. The Great Sun was passing overhead. He'd missed the Ceremony of the Sun. That was fine. He'd last until tomorrow. He was in no big hurry to rejuvenate his strength.

He was more concerned for his allies.

The General could have fallen in battle somewhere. With every voyage, the Mariner ran the chance of not returning due to some oceanic disaster. The Hunter may not have come back from a hunt, taking larger and larger risks with every trip. The Note-Taker, crippled due to his back, could've suffered spinal complications and perished while skekGra was away.

skekGra would never display such weakness in front of the rest of the court. Worry was one thing. Concern on such a personal level was another thing entirely. For the mighty Conqueror, destroyer of armies and the bane of rebellions, to be afraid of losing allies should be a silly notion.

But skekGra was afraid. He did not relish being alone.

From the very start of their reign, he had safely fallen back on the support of skekVar and skekSa based on past urSkek relations. The three of them had always worked together, no matter what the task. Over time, skekMal gravitated toward them based on common interest. skekHak, ever the recluse, had joined due to skekVar's insistence and, shortly after that, they had taken the diminutive Note-Taker in too.

The Conqueror admitted it freely. He hadn't liked skekTah at first. He was too small, too weak, and far too willing to cave in on himself in order to please others. Yet he was endlessly loyal to skekHak and that loyalty slowly extended to skekVar, trickling to the rest of them as the trine passed.

Then skekHak had died.

skekGra again admitted to it. His dislike of the Note-Taker dissolved after that. Perhaps it had been born out of a need to reassure skekTah that he was not being abandoned. The Conqueror knew that such fear would take root in skekTah and he rushed to destroy such fear, as the rest of them had done.

Thus friendship and a firm loyalty were brought to light. In such a time of turmoil, the alliance of travelers grew tighter. Yet skekTah had rarely ever left the castle unless forced. With the Gelfling census coming up and skekTah named to go on it, they all pitched in to ready the smaller Skeksis for the trip.

skekSa took the Note-Taker out sailing and taught him of the world beyond the shorelines of Skarith. skekGra and skekVar brought him out into the quarry, showing him the secret exits through the catacombs beneath the castle. skekMal took him into the depths of the Dark Wood and started teaching him to hunt.

It was the latter event that had broken skekTah's back. His first trip into the wood as an impromptu arrow fetcher and he'd come home on a stretcher. The Note-Taker had fallen over seventy feet from a tree and snapped his back. Those three months of recovery had been terrifyingly slow to pass.

skekGra admitted to letting his temper get the better of him, driving the Hunter away frequently. It had been unfair to blame skekMal for the incident, not when skekTah had willingly performed the task, but the Conqueror had needed someone to take his anger out on. Looking back on it now, it had been unusually cruel to keep the Hunter from the ailing Note-Taker during his recovery. skekTah had seemed so scared and worried about skekMal during that time.

The Conqueror and the Hunter had reconciled after skekTah started walking again and the incident, though a point of bitterness between them at times, was put firmly in the past. Both focused on helping the Note-Taker learn to walk and function again, driving away those that would see fit to disrupt and even destroy skekTah's progress. One way or another, months passed and by the end of the trine, skekTah was moving around on his own again.

skekGra had wondered if that was what Gelfling felt like when raising their young—pride. It felt different than when he won battles or took over another patch of territory. Those were victories and pride in Emperor skekSo's name. This was pride at his own alliance for a group effort that bore fruit.

skekHak would certainly be proud of them, skekGra liked to imagine.

skekTah wasn't so weak and childish anymore. He had grown stronger, a bit more skilled in both his job and other things. He was learning to navigate a ship, even if he got horribly seasick at first. He was learning how to identify plants and such in the quarry, despite his fear of bugs. He was starting to learn how to fight, to defend himself from attack.

skekTah was learning to survive in a world that was merciless to frightened and weak souls. skekGra couldn't help but feel pride at that.

Now all he felt was suspenseful fear.

Had anyone else been banished, as skekLi had only a short time ago? Was anyone else dead, like skekHak? Was his alliance still there, waiting for him to get home?

He crested the ridge and slowly descended, watching his footing. The last thing he needed was to be so close to home and then have an accident. He was too far away to howl for help. Even his loud bellow, the loudest among the Skeksis, couldn't reach the castle from here. If anything happened…

skekGra paused suddenly, head cocked. He strained his hearing.

…Did he just hear a scream?

He shut out all internal bodily noise, head tilted into the wind. He listened closely. Seconds passed before he heard it again—a sharp, strident scream.

A familiar one.

"skekTah!"

.o.o.o.o.

skekTah screamed as he scrambled over a boulder, unable to keep the sound of tearing flesh and breaking bone out of his ears. It echoed like a sick cave echo, never really leaving, reverberating around in his head. It made him want to vomit.

Huge four-legged beasts with vestigial wings on their backs—rakkida, skekTah recalled the name now, rakkida—had come from the grass around them without warning. Four of the beasts, teeth gnashing, slamming shut and breaking whatever got caught in their jaws. The rakkida had made short work of the Podling slaves, who hadn't understood what was happening to them and thus did not react to it. The drained creatures didn't even scream as they were crushed and torn apart.

But skekTah did. He screamed enough to certainly make skekEkt proud. Then he ran, fleeing for a high mound of rocks he saw deeper in the field.

If only he'd known that he was being herded there by the beasts, which weren't as stupid as they appeared. They were darkly intelligent, killing intent poisoning their minds. The rock mound was a nest where their mates and young lay. Once they killed the Skeksis, they would feed his remains to their newborns to make them strong.

skekTah scrambled up the rocks, trying to find purchase as quickly as possible. If he got high up, surely they wouldn't follow. They couldn't, right? They were too big.

Yet one emerged from the rocks above him, saliva dripping from its maw as it snarled. There were huge gaps in the mound. Now skekTah realized why the rakkida hadn't stopped him from running to this place.

It was a nest full of rakkida mothers and their young. He could hear their tiny cries from within the rocks. They were calling for food—fresh, warm, bloody meat. They didn't care from what creature. Just as long as it was meaty.

skekTah was meaty. He was food. Prey.

He'd run into a trap. Prey led to slaughter. This had been premeditated. And he'd gone along with it beautifully.

The Note-Taker wanted to cry, to scream, but his throat stung from previous screams. His back and limbs ached from the climb, piled on top of the earlier pain from his broken back. His energy was gone, wasted in his mad scramble for safety. He was trapped, doomed with no rescue. No amount of screams would bring help his way.

"I'm sorry," he choked, though to who, he did not know. His alliance? urTao? Himself?

He closed his eyes as the rakkida mother lunged, jaws wide, ready to rip him limb from limb.

A sickening scream erupted from below, followed rapidly by two more. Rocks skittered, bouncing off of skekTah's face and shoulders. Paws slammed near him before racing by, a roar pouring from its jaws.

skekTah opened his eyes. He was alive. The rakkida mother was gone, as were the others that had emerged from the mound around him.

"skekTah! Get down from there! Now!"

The Note-Taker jumped at the voice, almost losing his grip. He twisted his head to look over one shoulder and his beak dropped. He permitted himself to cry.

Down below in the field, right at the foot of the rock mound, was skekGra the Conqueror. At his feet lay one dead rakkida. Six more circled him, two heavily wounded. All of them snarled and snapped their jaws, beady eyes narrowed in rage. skekGra wielded his deadly sword, spattered in red and dripping on the dry earth beneath his feet.

skekTah suddenly recalled that he hadn't been angry all day today. Though he'd awoken in pain, it had been diminished when he'd looked over a series of scrawled lines and marks on a piece of paper tacked above his desk. He'd felt nothing but joy, looking at those marks.

skekGra had left four months ago. Today was the day that he was marked to return home.

And here skekGra was, so close to home, coming to the Note-Taker's rescue.

skekGra roared and bellowed, swinging his curved sword in wide arcs while skekTah carefully maneuvered his way back down. He hadn't actually climbed all that high but it was still a nasty drop if he slipped. He was grateful when his feet hit solid dirt again.

By then, three more rakkida had been slain.

The Note-Taker huddled behind the Conqueror, who rapidly circled around the rakkida to put distance between them and the beasts' nest. Two of the remaining rakkida retreated into the nest, dragging the lifeless carcasses of their own behind them.

Rakkida had no qualms against cannibalizing their fallen. Meat was meat. Their young would grow strong, regardless of its source.

The last rakkida stood her ground, roaring angrily at them from the mouth of the nest. skekTah shuddered. It was the mother that had been about to eat him up on the mound. She was clearly enraged that her prey was escaping.

"Keep moving," skekGra advised, never turning his back on the rakkida.

But skekTah couldn't. Anger swelled in him. That animal thought it could eat him. Well, he'd show her. He was not food!

"skekTah!" skekGra barked.

The Note-Taker seized a hefty rock from the earth and hauled it over his head. He suddenly felt strong, mighty even. Was this how skekUng and skekGra felt every day?

It felt great.

He threw it with all his might, crowing in victory when it hit the rakkida on the head. A sharp crunch from her snout promised that something had broken. She howled, whipping around to retreat into the nest, blood spattering a thin trail behind her. She would not return.

skekTah smiled, feeling victorious. He had driven a rakkida away, all by himself. What a story this would be to tell skekVar when he got home.

A sharp cuff to the head made him yelp. skekGra frowned, fist raised to do it again. A sharp jerk of the larger Skeksis' beak told skekTah what to do. He scurried away from the nest with skekGra following close behind, sword in hand.

"Why'd you hit me?" the Note-Taker demanded.

"What were you doing out here by yourself? Do you know how far from the castle you are?" skekGra hissed lowly.

"I wasn't alone! I had slaves with me," skekTah argued.

"Only slaves? Useless! They may as well not be here with you, that's how much company and protection they give!" skekGra barked angrily.

"I had to get herbs! skekTek ran out," skekTah whined, rubbing his head where the Conqueror had struck him. "He hadn't gotten more and my back hurt."

"So you came out here alone? What were you thinking?" skekGra snarled, looming over the Note-Taker menacingly. "Where was skekVar or skekMal? Why weren't they out here with you?"

Fear began to sprout in the Conqueror's heart. Were they dead? Was that why the Note-Taker was alone? Had everyone but skekTah died while skekGra was away?

"I didn't think to ask!" skekTah admitted. "I just wanted the pain to stop! So I grabbed some slaves and just…came to get the herbs by myself…"

"You didn't think…to ask…for help…"

skekGra processed that for a moment. Then he cuffed the smaller over the head again. This time though, it was out of relief. His alliance still lived. Nobody he cared for was dead.

"Ow! skekGra, stop it! That hurts!" the Note-Taker cried, hands over his head to prevent against further strikes.

"Then learn not to run off by yourself without telling anyone," skekGra ordered harshly, though a smile played across his beak. "Now what do these herbs look like? Can't go back empty-handed now. Have to have something to shove into the daft Scientist's face when we get home."

skekTah smiled, nodding as he pulled out the crumpled leaves from his pockets.

skekGra quickly proved to be far more efficient and superior in herb-hunting than any drained Podling could hope to be. In an hour, skekGra had filled his outer cloak with the herbs. They trekked home victorious that evening.

Even if skekGra ensured skekTah was scolded by every member of their alliance for running off on his own in his condition. The Note-Taker went to bed pouting like a Gelfling child.

"At least he's safe," skekSa sighed.

"Thanks for finding him, skekGra. It's good that you're home again," skekVar said, patting his taller companion on the shoulder.

"I may be home but my job isn't done yet. I'll report to the Emperor about my victories," skekGra said, turning away. "After that, I have a Scientist to hunt down."

"Why?" skekSa asked, noting the sharp edge to those words.

"So he doesn't unintentionally send skekTah out to do his job again," skekGra snarled.

The Conqueror walked away to deliver his report, leaving the Hunter, Mariner, and General behind. The trio looked at each other.

"Should someone warn skekTek?" skekSa asked.

"Leave him to face the wolves alone. He deserves it!" skekMal huffed.

"Agreed. skekUng can defend him, if he so likes," skekVar nodded. "After all, skekTek is no ally of ours."

"Will anyone tell skekUng?" the Marine added.

"No," skekMal replied, turning away. "Let the wolf have his meal."

"We heard nothing," skekVar shrugged, walking away.

skekSa sighed, turning to look down the corridor where the Chamber of Life was. Though he felt bad, his anger too had been ignited by the tale skekGra had shared with them. skekTek was getting what he deserved.

So skekSa resolved to hunt down skekNa. Maybe the Slave-Master should start asking more questions about where his slaves were going and why, lest the Conqueror hunt him down next. Consider it his way of doing skekNa a favor, even if he'd hate the Mariner for it right now.


	19. Kiss

I was really stuck between doing a legit ship piece or a hate-ship piece. So I asked myself, "Who is the best for skekTah to kiss? Who is the worst?"

I may do the legit ship piece later. It was funny in my head. Until then, you get this unfortunate piece.

This takes place shortly after the division when the Skeksis have finally taken on the roles of lords in every sense of it. So this is likely less than a trine after the division, no further than two.

Kiss

"Come on, skekUng. Dance!"

"Get away from me, you makeup-strewn wretch!"

"Ouch! That hurts, really deep down! Can't you dance at least once for us?"

This was the conversation that the Note-Taker was discreetly eavesdropping on. Down the table from him were skekUng and the Ornamentalist. Around them, a grand celebration was being held.

Only yesterday, the protection pact between them and the Gelfling had been signed and solidified by the Emperor. Though they had partied much in the Gelfling villages, this banquet was by far more regal and grand in comparison. Every Skeksis was there, even the elusive Machinist. All were decked in rich robes and twinkling jewels. All the stops had been pulled for this celebration.

For a pact with the numerous Gelfling, the acknowledgement of their lordship by the vastest creature on this planet, was vital to remaining in control of the Great Crystal.

Now that the pact was complete, there was nothing to be afraid of. The Podlings would accept them without question if the Gelfling did. Aughra was content to hide in her observatory atop the high hill far, far away from the castle. Raunip's whereabouts were unknown, though hopefully the meddler was dead. The rest were dumb beasts to be tamed or slain.

That was probably the best part of the division. Nobody knew what happened to the urSkek except Aughra and Raunip and a few tall tales quickly placed both out of the positives in public opinion. Aughra was isolated and Raunip had vanished. With them gone and the urRu content in the valley where they'd set up, there was nothing to stop the Skeksis from spinning their tale of how the urSkek had left Thra, leaving the Great Crystal in the capable hands of the Skeksis, who were charged to lord over the planet in their place.

With lordship came grandeur and worship, awe and wonder. They were effectively omnipotent gods to the beings of this planet. These creatures gave up everything for the Skeksis and did not question them. It was lovely.

"I said get away!" skekUng roared.

"Hmmmmm."

skekTah shivered at that noise, pointedly looking at his goblet of wine. The last thing he wanted was the Chamberlain to realize that they were being eavesdropped upon. He and skekSil didn't have the best relationship despite the fact that they worked together frequently now that the Skeksis Court had been firmly established.

"Could it be that you can't dance?" skekSil wheedled.

"What? Of course I can dance!" skekUng snarled, shoving his beak in the Chamberlain's face in a bid to make the other retreat. "I just don't want to! Why should I dance? Everyone else is doing enough of it for me!"

"But we want to see you dance," skekEkt pleaded.

"And with whom would I dance?" skekUng snarled.

"Anyone of your choosing," skekSil suggested. "Bar the Emperor, of course."

The Emperor danced as he pleased, when he pleased, and with whom he pleased. No one initiated a dance with the Emperor. Emperor skekSo did the initiating himself. And if he engaged you, there was to be no refusal. You were to dance. No arguments.

"And if no one wishes to dance?" skekUng challenged.

"Then do as the Emperor does," skekSil teased. "Give them no option. Why would one not wish to dance with you?"

"Please, skekUng! Please!" the Ornamentalist begged, talons clasped before him.

The spectacle was already gaining attention from their fellows. skekUng wasn't much of a dancer, the larger Skeksis preferring to sit back and drink. Now he was put on the spot. Even the Emperor was watching, waiting to see the outcome.

It was clear what skekUng would have to do.

"Fine! You, come here!"

skekTah squawked when a large hand seized him by the arm. He barely had enough time to put his goblet down before he was dragged onto the floor. Spun around, he floundered briefly before the larger Skeksis caught his hands, placing them in the right positions before taking up his own positions.

"You?" skekUng hissed, recognizing him. "The little shrieker from our exploration!"

"…Yes?" skekTah squeaked, embarrassed. He had hoped that skekUng did not remember that.

"Pah!" skekUng snorted, beginning to dance. "Try to keep up. You can dance, right?"

"I can dance," skekTah confirmed. EktUtt had taught him how, as had the Gelfling when he was an urSkek. "Can you?"

"Of course! Just don't complain if I step on your toes," skekUng growled. "I'm doing this to prove a point. Nothing else."

"Understood," the Note-Taker nodded.

They danced.

It was an awkward kind of duet, what with their size difference. skekTah's steps were quicker to keep up with the wide swings and bows that skekUng administered on him. skekTah did not dare to complain when his toes were indeed stepped on. He didn't dare speak at all. He looked firmly at skekUng's shoulder and prayed he was not blushing.

Everyone was watching them. Those that danced did it on the fringes of the floor, staying well out of the way of the odd duo. The Emperor watched with rapt attention, a smile on his beak. skekSil was snickering on the sidelines, flanked by skekEkt and the Gourmand.

skekTah was so glad when the dance was complete and the choir moved to another vibrant song. skekUng seemed just as pleased, quickly removing himself from the smaller Skeksis. He stomped to skekSil, teeth bared.

"There! I danced! Happy?" he demanded.

"Very," skekSil smiled, turning to look at the skittish Note-Taker. "Have fun?"

"It was fine," skekTah replied evasively.

"Why not do another?"

"I did what you asked! Enough!" skekUng snarled.

skekTah cowered, caught between the two now that the Chamberlain had crept around him. skekUng snarled, clearly enraged. skekSil's amused whimper stabbed into the Note-Taker's ears.

He decided to just grab his goblet and go. Perhaps skekHak would prove to be better company.

He didn't get to grab his goblet. Talons landed neatly on his shoulders. That whimper rebounded in his ears. skekSil was suddenly way too close to his back.

"I'm sure the Note-Taker would not mind a second dance, skekUng. I insist."

And with a shove, skekTah found himself crashing into skekUng. His claws snagged on skekUng's thick ebony robes to catch his balance. The tip of his beak ached, caught between something sharp. A triad of gasps echoed around them.

"Oh my!" skekEkt chirped.

"Scandalous!" skekSil snickered.

"That looks painful," skekAyuk noted. "I think you're coming on a bit strong there, skekUng. Can skekTah even back out?"

Back out? What? What was going on? What were they talking about?

skekTah opened his eyes and nearly fainted.

He was crushed up against skekUng's chest, the other having wrapped an arm around his back to keep them steady during the impact, keeping either of them from falling. The Note-Taker's hands were splayed across skekUng's chest. These weren't nearly as terrifying as what was going on above the chest, of course.

skekTah's beak was wedged between skekUng's, his teeth catching the tip of the Note-Taker's beak. skekUng's red eyes were huge, expression blank. Anger swam in the depths, swamped beneath confusion. skekTah had to guess his were similar, though fear would be in his eyes rather than anger.

From an outsider's perspective, it looked very much like the pair was attempting to kiss.

skekSil whimpered, catching their attention. "Hmmmm! My, how vulgar of you. You look like Gelfling like that."

That was all it took to break the moment of stagnant silence.

skekUng opened his beak, letting the smaller free. Then he roughly shoved skekTah aside and roared, calling everyone's attention to him. skekSil froze, beak dropping in sudden fear. skekUng bellowed and charged, talons outstretched. The Chamberlain turned and ran, a shrill scream escaping him. skkEkt and skekAyuk abruptly abandoned the Chamberlain in favor of saving their own necks. Thankfully, skekUng only had eyes on skekSil and thus ignored the others.

skekTah flinched, whimpering as he touched his beak. He could feel where skekUng's teeth had caught. Thankfully, there were only a few spots of blood. No true punctures or damage. He'd be fine.

"Are you okay?" skekEkt asked, carefully approaching him.

"I didn't see that coming at all. Heh-heh!" skekAyuk chuckled.

"…Neither did I," skekTah admitted.

For the next several minutes, skekUng would viciously chase the Chamberlain around the chamber in a fit of unspeakable rage. It took most of the court to successfully stop him and calm him down. skekSil quickly slunk out, choosing to wisely stay out of the other's sight until things settled down again.

skekTah wanted to flee as well. Instead he resigned himself to spending company with the Machinist. skekHak wasn't much of a talker but he was at least kind enough not to prod him about what had happened between him and skekUng. For this, the Note-Taker was eternally grateful.

It was a secret that would never be used by the future Schemer. It was just too embarrassing. Plus the Chamberlain knew of it. There was just too much risk of it being used against him.

Probably for the better. The incident was never spoken of after that.


	20. Scream

This is basically a sequel to Busted. skekEkt and skekAyuk get their revenge on the Schemer for his playful terrorizing...only for it to end badly for all parties involved.

Scream

"Ornamentalist, what are yo—"

"Shush, you windbag! Quiet!"

"Heheh!"

"He's going to kill you."

"Let him try. He deserves it."

"This is highly inappropriate beha—"

"He scared us silly before. This is revenge. Go preach elsewhere, skekZok!"

"This should be funny."

"Hey, hey! Get his eyes too!"

"Ooh! Good idea."

"That color certainly does not suit him."

"Good! I'm aiming to ruin, not beautify. Shocking, I know."

"Hmmmmm. Impressive."

"Let's see _you_ scream this time, Schemer, while _we_ laugh!"

.o.o.o.o.

"Nnnnn…"

skekTah blinked, lifting his head. A quick look around warned him that he'd fallen asleep in the library. There was no sign of skekOk, thankfully. No sign of anyone, actually.

Good, very good. It wouldn't due to be caught sleeping when he should be working.

He yawned, sniffing. A sharp sneeze issued from his beak. He groaned, shaking his head…and paused when he noticed the air was cloudy.

Was that…powder?

It was gone now, drifting to the table. skekTah frowned, rising and sneezing again. More powder came forth. Did skekOk never dust in here?

He left, intent on giving the Scroll-Keeper a piece of his mind.

Snickers behind hands greeted him as he stalked down the corridor. Even the usually silent Treasurer could not keep quiet, though he seemed to be trying. The Schemer frowned, tempted to yell, only to sneeze again. Why was it so dusty in the castle?

"Okay! What's so funny?" he demanded, whirling on skekNa.

"Pfffft!" The Slave-Master turned his patched eye to him. "Pah! What do you care? Just a joke."

"One that everyone is in on," skekTah growled. "Everyone but me."

"Just a joke. Pah-hah," skekNa snickered, doing his best to avoid looking at the Schemer.

"Now see here, yo—what the heck?!"

Jamming a talon into the Slave-Master's chest made the Schemer notice them. They weren't their regular color, the yellowing-white shade. They were bright pink and sparkly!

The Slave-Master guffawed, almost doubling over in his laughter.

A quick swipe over his own face told the Schemer where the dust was coming from. It was not dust, it was powder! Make-up! Someone had gaudily painted his face while he'd slept! That explained all the laughter!

Which left only one suspect—skekEkt the Ornamentalist.

But why?

.o.o.o.o.

"skekEkt!"

skekAyuk jumped, whirling toward the corridor mouth. "Uh oh! I think he figured it out."

skekEkt crossed his arms, eyes narrowed. "Good! He deserved it!"

"He sounds mad," the Gourmand babbled.

"Hmmmmm. I'm surprised nobody stopped you, Ornamentalist," skekSil purred.

"I'd have painted their faces too. You do not mess with me while I'm working," skekEkt declared, head held high.

skekTah turned up at the end of the corridor, make-up smeared from his pawing and the polish on his claws now bearing scratches and missing fragments. skekEkt resisted the urge to cry in misery. This work had not been done for beauty. It had been done for revenge. To see it ruined was a sacrifice that was needed to prove a point.

"skekEkt! What in Thra's name did you do to me?" the Schemer barked.

The Ornamentalist made sure to stand as tall as his own aching bones allowed, which was a good two heads taller than the Schemer. It paid to be among the tallest of the Skeksis. Though the Schemer did not cower, it made skekEkt feel vindicated.

"It's called revenge," skekEkt replied. "I know it was you and that stupid hunting cloak of yours that scared the Gourmand and me several days ago! It's always been you, slinking around and spooking us! Well, no more! You spook us? I ruin you!"

"Ruin? This is hardly ruin, skekEkt," skekTah hissed, puffing up. He could not top the other in height but in girth, perhaps just barely. "You gave me a bad makeover. I can live with that."

"Hmmmm. But can you live with the ridicule?" the Chamberlain asked. "After all, almost everyone saw you. And nobody stopped the Ornamentalist. Everyone watched him do it."

That made skekTah's blood run cold. Everyone? Had his own alliance seen? No, they wouldn't tolerate this.

Right?

"Nobody tried to help you. The only one that attempted to ward him off was skekZok and that was before the Emperor saw and approved of this," skekSil smiled wickedly. "After that, nobody stopped skekEkt."

If the Emperor had seen, then his alliance couldn't possibly help him. But why hadn't they come to his rescue afterward? Had someone been patrolling the corridors, keeping skekVar and the rest away?

"Lunch should be soon. Perhaps you should keep the look?" the Chamberlain teased. "Maybe you'll start a new fashion trend."

skekTah felt his rage fizzle out. He slumped and turned, slinking away. skekEkt's shrieking laughter reverberated in his ears, mixed with the Gourmand's loud guffaws and the Chamberlain's wheedling snickers.

He hid in his tunnels and returned to his quarters. He washed his face and scraped viciously at his talons. He purposely avoided the noon meal. He'd attend the evening meal, though it was several hours away. He'd survive that long.

Hopefully everyone would find other things to laugh at by then, forgetting this horrible incident.

.o.o.o.o.

Through whispered word-of-mouth of Skeksis who thought the walls could not hear them, skekTah realized why his allies never approached him. They were all out, gone after the morning meal that the Schemer had missed.

skekMal was out hunting. skekGra had gone with skekSa to explore new islands out at sea. skekVar journeyed with the Garthim in search of Gelfling settlements to raid.

The Schemer was alone and ally-less in the castle. That's why this had occurred. The Ornamentalist wasn't stupid enough to do this when larger, stronger, and meaner Skeksis would exact immediate revenge on him for it. He had waited until they were all gone to target the tiny Schemer. skekTah falling asleep in the library in broad daylight and in plain sight had only made the incident even sweeter for skekEkt.

He'd effectively been asking for it.

But how? How did skekEkt know it was him?

He was not the only one to bear this cloak. Though skekMal and the rest were gone, such cloaks were possessed by the rest of the hunting party that were still in the castle. Then again, they had probably singled him out by process of elimination. Though skekTah had made himself look bigger in his stunts, he was still among the smallest Skeksis in the castle.

That only served to make skekTah more depressed. He returned to his quarters to silently wait for dinner.

Hopefully his allies would be home by then.

.o.o.o.o.

They were not home yet, though the Garthim were spotted cresting the ridge into Skarith. The docks remained empty, though skekSa's ship was on the horizon. skekMal tended to return late at night and the three suns were already setting, the Great Sun almost entirely sunk beneath the mountains.

skekTah would need to face any ridicule at dinner…alone.

Making sure he at least looked a bit better than usual, in the hopes of giving the illusion that he'd made a full recovery without complications from the incident, he left his quarters to head for the dining hall. The rest were already there, the servants slowly bringing out dishes. The Schemer was late, if only by a few minutes.

The Emperor turned to him. "Decided to join us after all?"

"My apologies for my lateness, sire."

skekAyuk lifted his head. "Now!"

The Emperor looked puzzled. "Gourmand, what are yo—"

White clouded skekTah's vision instantly, making him shriek. He scrambled backward, trying not to trip over his tail in the process. When the thick dust settled, the Schemer recognized the laughter roaring around him. A quick look at his clothes confirmed the worst.

He'd just been covered in what he could only assume was Nebrie flour. He was white from head to toe.

Wonderful.

The Emperor smashed the butt of his scepter on the ground. "Gourmand! What is the meaning of this?"

"You're smiling, sire. You liked it," skekAyuk accused.

There was indeed a crooked smile on the Emperor's face. That's what hurt. Even angry, Emperor skekSo could not deny himself good entertainment when it presented itself. He had enjoyed watching the Schemer be tormented today.

This was too much. The make-up, skekTah could handle, but this was a direct attack on his person. skekEkt could not have been in on this, not when it involved the destruction of robes that he'd spent countless nights making. No, this was the Gourmand's work alone.

And the Chamberlain, sly as always, had benefitted immensely from both attacks.

skekTah turned and marched out, ignoring the calls from his fellows for him to come back. He was humiliated and embarrassed. How could he ever show his face before the court again? No, he would stay away, wait for his allies to come back. Surely skekVar would not stand for this!

…Yet that was what everyone would expect of him. They'd expect him to run to the General, to the Hunter, and have them fix his problems. All because he couldn't confront his attackers himself.

skekTah felt ashamed and angry. His eyes stung. He kept walking, head down. His stomach snarled angrily, for it had been denied every meal today. Even going to skekNa for scraps was impossible now, for the Slave-Master would laugh at him.

Perhaps skekMal would bring back something and let the Schemer pilfer from it before delivering his catch to the Gourmand's kitchens.

He crashed into someone, yelping when flour rose from his robes in clouds. He coughed, backing up and hastily apologizing. Were they really so determined that they had abandoned dinner to torment him now?

"Schemer? What has happened to you?"

skekTah jolted before looking up. Before him, white flour now dusting his jet black robes, was the Hunter.

He turned away, embarrassed and ashamed. Of course the Hunter turned up now. It was already too late.

"It's nothing. The others are at dinner," he muttered, slinking past him. "I'm going to bed. Good night, skekMal."

skekMal turned, watching the smaller walk away. He ran a claw through his robes and sniffed, sneering when he registered the scent. Nebrie flour. The Gourmand had that stuff in droves in his kitchens.

But why was it on the Schemer?

He had a nasty feeling deep in his gut. He didn't like it. Ignoring the urge to immediately check on the Schemer, to interrogate him about this, skekMal aimed for the dining hall. The fact that the rest were still eating while skekTah left only hastened the Hunter's rage.

"Hunter! You've returned!" the Emperor crowed when skekMal entered. "Welcome!"

"What has happened here while I was away?" skekMal hissed.

He had noted the flour coating the floor in front of the hall entrance upon his entrance. Someone had dumped this from the balcony above, perhaps slaves on the orders of someone. He bared his fangs. This had been a direct attack upon the Schemer, not some kitchen-related accident. This had been intentional.

And only one Skeksis could readily get their claws on sufficient Nebrie flour.

"Just a joke, Hunter. The Schemer took it a bit too far," the Chamberlain reassured. "Come, sit! You must be hungry."

"I ate," the Hunter growled, approaching the table.

"Pity. The Gourmand created quite a wonderful menu tonight," skekSil offered.

"The General, Conqueror, and Mariner should be home in another hour," skekMal reported, glancing at the Emperor before eyeing the Gourmand. "Nebrie flour?"

"It was a joke! It'll come off!" skekAyuk declared.

"It better! I spent four nights on that velvet cloak alone!" skekEkt squawked bitterly. "And I thought what I…" He broke off abruptly, looking away to avoid the Hunter's burning gaze.

Nobody was even bothering to hide their guilt. Disgusting.

The Hunter withdrew, choosing his most wicked smile. He saw the shudders of his fellows, the way they seemed to shrink back into their chairs. Even the Emperor seemed ill at ease now.

"I'll leave my catches in your kitchen, Gourmand. I think you'll like what I found," he stated.

Then he turned away with a lavish sweep of his hunting cloak and departed. Now he had work to do.

Vengeful work.

.o.o.o.o.

The Gourmand's screams tore through the corridors, greeting the returning trio of Skeksis. skekSa yelped while his fellows bristled. They hurried up the floors to the kitchens.

skekAyuk was hiding in the hall outside of his kitchen, shaking. The rest of the Skeksis were present, minus the Schemer—a rather curious absence, in the General's mind. The Emperor was shrieking at the Hunter, who seemed unaffected by the scolding he was receiving.

"What happened?" the Mariner asked.

"The Hunter spread the guts of his kill all over skekAyuk's kitchen!" skekEkt cried, hands over his eyes.

"What?" The General turned to the Hunter. "skekMal!"

The Hunter merely smirked, not looking ashamed in the slightest.

That made skekVar nervous. It wasn't like the Hunter to act out like this. skekMal's methods were sneaky, behind the scenes, out of sight. This was the castle, in a frequently-used location. He didn't understand. For what reason would the Hunter perform such a disgusting act?

"Get out of my sight! You will have no meals and perform no hunts for three nights!" the Emperor roared.

"As you wish, Emperor," skekMal said, bowing his head.

The rest of the Skeksis mingled, either ogling the scene of the gore-splattered kitchen or consoling the cowering Gourmand. skekMal discreetly crossed the hall to his alliance. skekVar glared at him before guiding them away to an empty hall a few corridors down.

"What were you thinking?" skekVar hissed, turning on the larger Skeksis. "I know the Gourmand is rarely grateful for what you bring him and that you and skekLach do not get along anymore regarding prey acquisition, but this? This is too far!"

"They've been targeting the Schemer today, General," skekMal growled. "I suggest looking in the dining hall before making wild assumptions about my motives."

skekVar withdrew, suddenly worried. Targeting the Schemer? For what purpose? Had skekTah managed to get into trouble while they were away?

That was always a risk when the four of them went out. The General admitted that maybe they had coddled and guarded the Schemer a bit too much, but how could they not? The loss of the Machinist had destroyed him and his broken back only made him more vulnerable. Without them, anyone could've taken advantage of skekTah for their own ends. It was their responsibility as his allies to help him in such hard times.

Though it looked as though others had noted this and were going for the Schemer when all four, who frequently left the castle to perform their jobs, were away. For the Schemer rarely left the castle now that his back had broken.

"If you don't mind, I have a Schemer to look for. He'll need help getting his carapace off, whether he'll admit it or not," skekMal huffed, turning to lumber away from them.

skekVar watched before turning away himself, heading for the dining hall. skekSa and skekGra followed him. They would all figure this mess out together.

And, jointly, none of them would enjoy what they'd find.


	21. Run

This is an alternate ending to Sunset. Thank AzureLazuliBlue on deviantART for suggesting this.

Tah just cannot get away from these rakkida. They're the bane of his existence! lol

Run

The bushes rustled ahead of them. skekTah and skekSil both froze at the sound. skekUng ceased his march, waiting. Nobody moved.

The bushes parted to reveal the most hideous thing that skekTah had ever seen. A hulking beast of pure muscle with withered wings atop its broad shoulders. The quadruped beast stepped from the leaves and growled, long teeth dripping with saliva.

This was no passive creature. This was a predator.

And it was hungry.

With a scream, skekSil violently tore free of skekUng's grip and spun around. The larger Skeksis cursed, turning to yell at him but skekSil was gone.

skekTah cowered. The creature—rakkida, his mind supplied, it was a rakkida—stepped closer, snarling now. Sizing them up. Deciding whether to attack or not.

Its eyes kept moving toward him. skekTah was smaller and weaker. Easy prey for a hungry predator.

Perhaps skekSil had made the right call in fleeing.

The rakkida roared. skekUng turned to bellow back at it, spines rising in response to the threat. His grip on skekTah loosened for a moment.

skekTah tore free and ran, racing the same way that skekSil had gone. He shouted but there was no response. The taller Skeksis likely would not surrender his hiding place, if he was even in the same area.

He looked back over his shoulder briefly to see skekUng circling, the rakkida stalking around him. He felt bad for leaving skekUng alone…but the other was bigger and stronger than him. Surely skekUng would be fine!

skekTah kept running, trying not to trip over roots or get caught on branches. His thin robes tore at the sleeves and the bottom hem. skekEkt would be upset to see the damage.

He ran for who knows how long. When his feet began to ache from stepping on sharp rocks and hidden branches, he stopped and rested. There was no sign of skekSil. He could not see the castle anywhere over the canopy.

He was horribly lost.

Was skekSil even out here? Had skekUng died against the rakkida? Would anyone else in the castle attempt to find them? Or were they now stranded in this place, forever alone and lost?

skekTah cowered against a tree, arms wrapped around himself. He tried to pretend his secondary arms were the arms of another, that he was not alone. That somebody was with him, embracing him, comforting him.

He wanted to go home.

.o.o.o.o.

Where were those idiots?

skekUng bellowed viciously, breaking a branch that was in his way. It had been hours since that wild animal—a rakkida, that's what it was—had chosen to unwisely attack them. His fellow scouts, the fools, had up and abandoned him to deal with the creature himself. They were lucky he was among the biggest and strongest of their kind or the fight may have ended very differently.

The rakkida had been vicious but also wary. It had known that skekUng was strong. Inexperienced in combat, but strong. The rakkida had tried to attack directly and found that impossible. The closest it got was snapping at skekUng's shoulder, managing to tear skin, but that was all it managed to do. The rakkida quickly chose to abandon the fight when the Skeksis began bashing it with thick branches, even dropping a large rock on its head when it chased him. It soon left to find easier prey.

Leaving skekUng with his current dilemma—find his cowardly assistants or go home.

Both had their pros and cons. He really could pick either one at his discretion.

If he went in search of them, he could be declared as loyal within the court. There were only eighteen of them and, until they knew more about this planet, losing court members so soon wasn't a good idea. skekSil was useful in negotiations, as was skekTah. The Emperor was rather possessive of all of them. To lose anyone may drop blame on skekUng since he had been tasked with their supervision.

If he went home, he could recount the story of the rakkida to the Emperor and hopefully be exempt from blame. He was injured and, while it wasn't bad, it could get worse without treatment. Nobody could really blame him for going home when the two fools had chosen to scatter. The forest was huge! How could he possibly find both before it got dark?

He could honestly pick either decision. The choice was his and his alone.

Yet he chose to search.

If all else failed, he'd go home come nightfall and convince the Emperor that he had at least attempted to find the two idiots. If they wandered back of their own accord, perfect. If not, then oh well. It would go on record that he had tried to find them.

But it was best to at least put forth the effort to search first. It would put him in better light with the Emperor. That was good to do.

The sky was turning from blue to orange. The Great Sun was setting. He had maybe another two hours of searching left before nightfall...

.o.o.o.o.

There were so many sounds in the forest. skekTah could not discern most of their origins. That just made him even more frightened.

Couple that with the growing darkness as the suns set and skekTah was absolutely terrified.

He was certain that he was wandering in circles. He'd seen no real change in scenery. Just trees and bushes and shrubs and small animals that made him jump in fright.

And the bugs! Eugh! He hated those the most! Stupid flying buzzy things that were everywhere!

He had stopped shouting nearly an hour ago. He had yet to find any sign of skekSil or even skekUng. Perhaps both were dead. There was still no sign of the castle.

skekTah was ready to give up. Just sit on the ground and cry. There really was nothing else to do.

His feet hurt. His throat was dry with thirst. He was hungry. He wanted to sleep.

He wanted to be home in the castle with the others, safe and sound.

He cursed skekUng for bringing him out here. He cursed skekSil for prompting the idea of separating from skekUng when the rakkida appeared. He cursed the Emperor for sending them out here at all.

skekTah paused, resting against a tree. He struggled to calm down. His anxiety was flying out of control. He felt himself beginning to shake. His eyes burned with unshed tears.

He hated everything, especially these bugs.

A sharp crack made him shriek, turning to dive away from the tree. Something huge toppled onto the path, coughing and shrieking. skekTah tripped, hitting the ground. He moaned before scrambling to his feet. He needed to run, to get away!

"Hmmmmm! skekTah? Wait, stay! Please stay! Is me, skekSil!"

skekTah froze. He knew that whine!

He spun around to find skekSil on the path, sprawled on his front. The taller struggled to rise, only to yelp and fall. skekTah could see long green tendrils tangled around the other's feet.

"Hold on. You're caught," skekTah said.

He approached, carefully kneeling by skekSil. The tendrils were leafy and thick, but loosely wrapped. skekSil had probably run through a mess of these nearby. skekTah carefully unwound them before throwing them into the bushes. skekSil rose into a sit, rubbing his feet.

"Hmmmm. So glad I found you. Thought I was lost, yes. Very lost."

"So did I," skekTah admitted.

"skekUng?"

skekTah shook his head. "I haven't seen him."

"Haven't either," skekSil admitted. "The castle. Have you seen it?"

"No," skekTah replied.

skekSil whined, clutching his thin strands of hair. "Why? Why we come out here? Is a disaster! No food, no home, no safety!"

"At least we're together," skekTah pointed out. "Better than being alone."

"Hmmmmm… Is right," skekSil mumbled, calming himself. "Still hungry."

"I am too, but I don't know what's safe to eat out here," skekTah complained, looking around.

"Never should have run," skekSil lamented.

"That was a pretty big mistake," skekTah agreed.

They both sat and sulked for a while. The sky grew dark and so did the forest. Shadows grew pitch black and it was harder to see past bushes and tree trunks. The forest, sunny and cheerful, quickly grew dark and ominous.

"Want to go home," skekSil whimpered.

"So do I," skekTah said, slowly rising. "Maybe we can find the castle still, before the suns are all gone."

skekSil rose, head bobbing in hope.

Staying close together, the duo searched in a direction that neither recalled walking in before. skekSil hissed, stomping his feet when tiny animals appeared. skekTah swatted at bugs, growling and cursing at them for existing. It was a miserable walk but they performed it.

They finally hit a small clearing that let them see better over the trees. The Great Sun was dipping below the horizon, painting the sky a multitude of soft colors. It was a beautiful sight. skekTah could not help but marvel at it.

"Hmmmm? Is that it?"

skekTah peered at where skekSil pointed. In the distance, there was a tall spire rising into the sky. skekTah squinted, trying to find details.

"…I think it is. We found it, skekSil! Home!" he crowed.

"Home!" skekSil shrieked, jumping about in joy.

"There you are!"

Both Skeksis screamed, leaping to one another. They cowered as the forest behind them shook. From the darkness came the menacing sight of skekUng, clearly enraged. He most certainly looked the part.

If skekTah and skekSil's thin robes had been torn, then skekUng's had been reduced to rags. There were so many tears and holes in it that it was a wonder that it hadn't fallen apart yet. The left shoulder was dyed red, though the flesh beneath seemed to bear only minor damage.

He stomped forward, cuffing both of them with a snarl. skekSil wailed, clutching his head. skekTah cowered, skull aching from the strike. He knew that had been a light hit. skekUng would've caused far more damage if he'd really wanted to.

"What were you thinking? I said not to run!" skekUng barked furiously.

"While that thing was there?" skekSil asked incredulously.

"It was weak and stupid! It barely hurt me!" skekUng declared. "You fools had me running around for hours! We could be home right now if not for you!"

"We're sorry! We got scared," skekTah explained.

"You're lucky you're not dead!" skekUng snarled, cuffing them both again bitterly.

"Can we go home? Hmmmmm? Please?" skekSil begged, head ducked to avoid any further blows to his person.

"I'm tempted to leave you here! Waste of time!" skekUng ranted, stomping past them. "Come on!"

"Oh, thank Thra," skekTah sighed.

This time he did not complain when skekUng turned to snatch his wrist. skekSil too did not complain, accepting the forced dragging. It meant safety suddenly.

"Run off now, why don't you? Maybe I'll leave you here!" skekUng growled.

"We won't run off again, skekUng. Promise," skekTah reassured.

"Hmmmmm. Yes, no more running. Will stay, yes," skekSil agreed quickly.

"Hmph! Good!" skekUng barked.

The march back to the castle was relatively uneventful, fortunately. skekUng was proud to recount the fight against the rakkida, happily outing the two cowards to the Emperor. Both were scolded heftily for abandoning their posts while skekUng went to have his shoulder tended to. When their scolding was over, skekSil slunk away while skekTah shuffled to his room.

He was just happy to be home. He'd take one hundred reprimands if it meant never being sent into the forest again.


	22. Party

Half of this was done before I headed out-of-state to the funeral. The rest was finished at the funeral location before said funeral was performed.

Party

It was a cold night. That much skekTah registered. Even wrapped up in the many blankets and shawls and cloaks he had received from skekEkt over the trine, he felt the bitter sting of the night's chill on his skin.

He didn't like the cold. He could never warm up quickly when it was cold. skekTek called it…temperature control issues? Something about poor thermoregulation and other big science-sounding words that the Schemer could not quite recall now.

Basically, he got cold easily and was unable to warm up quickly.

So his main solution was the nest he now had constructed on his bed—a great tangle of blankets and shawls and old robes and other loose, soft, heat-retentive cloths. Most were gained from the Ornamentalist in exchange for gold or other "pretty-looking goods" that skekTah would find in his skulking through the tunnels. Some parts of his nest were old mementos of the past from allies long gone…

skekTah shivered. He hated the cold. He was much too old to race around in order to escape it, as he had once done as the Note-Taker. It had been an easy condition to overcome back then.

Back when the hunting party was made of Skeksis, not Garthim.

Before the Gelfling Gathering and their horrid prophecy of Skeksis doom.

Before most of the party had perished.

skekTah groped in the dark until his night vision kicked in. The blackness of the old cloak stuck out against the soft green of his vision. Grasping the rough, worn material, he dragged it near and flung it over himself. Even thinned with age, it kept the cold at bay better than most of his covers did.

skekTah dug the tip of his beak into a corner of the cloak, hoping to catch a whiff of that old earthy scent that had brought him comfort once upon a time. It was gone now, dissolved with many decades. He missed it.

skekEkt made much of the materials that helped craft his nest, but not this. No, this cloak was special. skekEkt may have provided the material used to make it…but this was put together solely by the Hunter.

.o.o.o.o.

Back when Gelfling essence was discovered to restore youth, the Skeksis had begun snatching individuals from their royal guard to concoct the drink. When that became too obvious and the Gelfling began to question the disappearances, skekUng proposed the Garthim's creation. On the surface, the obsidian crabs would pose as guards. In reality, they would catch dozens of Gelfling in the field for the sake of gathering essence.

But the Garthim were bulky and difficult to put together. It was the first attempt to bring an artificial creature to life using the Dark Crystal. The creatures absorbed much of skekUng and skekTek's time and efforts.

Until the Garthim were ready, Gelfling still needed to be gathered. Snatching from the castle guard was becoming riskier with every disappearance. The Gelfling would eventually pose their suspicions before their lords, perhaps even see the Skeksis for their true nature.

To prevent this, specimens would need to be snatched far from the castle. Give the Gelfling something else to worry about. Keep eyes off of the castle.

skekMal the Hunter performed this duty himself and spun the first hunting cloak, black as night and thick to muffle sound. Shortly after his hunts began, his bone mask was crafted to hide his identity. Legends of the Hunter began to spread amongst Gelfling in lands away from the castle.

But skekMal was just one Skeksis. The Emperor required many Gelfling to be captured for essence. Droves of them, even.

So skekMal turned to his allies. The hunting party was formed.

For the first trine, the party consisted of four Skeksis—skekMal, skekGra the Conqueror, skekVar the General, and skekSa the Mariner. As more Gelfling were captured and work on the Garthim began to go smoothly, skekMal recruited skekNa the Slave-Master and skekLach the Census Taker to join them in increasing their hunting load. Several months later, skekTah was brought into the hunting party.

Even now, the Schemer wasn't quite sure why skekMal chose to bring him into their circle. He was not strong. He was small and weak and ridiculously frail. Not to mention his recently-broken back. He was more of a burden than anything.

Yet skekMal brought him with them one night.

And skekTah joined each night afterward of his own volition.

As the months passed, the party grew in strength. Strategies were formed. Nets and sacks and other implements used for capture and transport were designed. The Gelfling grew predictable in their movements, their reactions, their traveling routes. Each night saw more Gelfling being snatched up, each easier than the last.

They had a good system going.

skekMal led the party, memorizing paths in the Dark Wood and even the Spriton Plains where Gelfling tended to gather. skekGra, skekSa, and skekVar would circle around, cutting off escape routes before the rest moved in. skekLach and skekMal, and sometimes skekUng when he was free from the rigors of making the Garthim, would charge in to scatter the Gelfling and catch those unlucky enough not to bolt right away. skekNa would catch stragglers with his hook, swinging them around to disorient them and make them easier to stuff into a sack.

skekTah, for the most part, served as lookout. His small size and lithe frame, even burdened by his thick brace-bearing carapace, made it easy for him to slink close to determine the exact location and numbers of Gelfling in sight. Much like in the castle, he provided tactical and informational support to ensure the hunt ended in success.

Not that a hunt had ever failed. skekMal always got his quarry, one way or another. Now that he was experienced, he never missed his mark with either knife or arrow. Very little survived a direct encounter with the Hunter.

So the essence production grew. The Garthim neared completion. The hunts were successful.

And then the prophecy was born. The Gelfling began to fight back. Things changed.

The Garthim were completed, along with skekZok's Crystal Bats, used for spying in much the same manner that skekTah had performed for the hunting party. skekUng, skekVar, and skekGra pulled back from hunting in order to oversee Garthim raids of villages of Gelfling.

The results were astounding. The sheer number of Gelfling brought in by one pack of Garthim was astonishing. The Emperor was beyond pleased with the results.

Leaving the Hunter bitter.

His hunts, while still successful, were ignored as paltry compared to the success of the Garthim. The party's numbers further reduced as skekNa grew too weary of the hunt and skekSa had to focus more on sailing to catch the elusive Sifa. Even skekTah, though eager to stay on the Hunter's good side, had to bow out of hunting due to his back. Old age made running too troublesome. He'd simply slow skekMal down.

Which left only the Census Taker, who no longer had much to do with the census rendered complete. That alliance did not last long before they squabbled over trophies. They eventually split, leaving the Hunter to continue forth alone.

skekMal continued to hunt but with a strange intent. Most nights, he returned with no Gelfling. He began to distance himself from others, even in his own alliance. The decade before his death, a strange scent lingered on the Hunter's breath—the scent of Gelfling and death.

skekTah noted many strange things about skekMal in those ten trine. Rarely did he partake in meals at the castle. He stayed away for longer during hunts too. One would think he'd return more frequently for food and to rejuvenate under the rays of the suns.

But he didn't. He didn't need to. His hunts of Gelfling bore a new purpose. This, skekTah found out not long before skekMal's death.

Gelfling feared the Hunter for more than just his sudden appearances. He didn't just hunt Gelfling. He killed them. Ate them. And grew strong from the killing.

For devouring the entirety of a Gelfling was no different than draining them for the vital life fluid in their bodies. You got essence either way. skekMal discovered this by himself.

Sadly, such an advantage did not save him from death…

.o.o.o.o.

skekTah huddled deeper into his blanket nest, pulling the shadowy cloak in with him. Though old and thinning in places, it was the source of many vital memories. It remained a part of his wardrobe even now, long after the Hunter had perished.

The hunting cloaks of the Hunter, General, and Mariner were burned at their funerals with the rest of their remains. skekGra took his cloak with him when he was banished from the castle. skekLach's cloak disappeared, likely stored somewhere for safekeeping by the Collector prior to his death and never rediscovered. Where skekUng and skekNa's cloaks were, who knows.

skekTah was the last one to keep wearing his. It became part of his daily regiment, to pull it on. It was a final memento of those days long past, when he'd slink through the tall grass in the dead of night to find Gelfling to hunt. It was the burden of an entire portion of his distant past, much loved and cared for.

He buried himself in his nest and slept to fight the cold. It was all he could do now.

He dreamed of hunting.


	23. Alone

This was mostly written while I was in Texas for my aunt's funeral. Internet connection was spotty but thank goodness Word does not require internet to function!

While churning plot bunnies a while ago, I tried to think of what skekTah would do about alliances if he survived to the movie. Since he and skekSil are rivals and he and skekUng hate each other, skekZok is all that's really left. Since I've done so little in terms of interaction between them, I decided that was a good choice for a future alliance. Not that skekTah is joining without some real proof. After all, skekZok is just as crafty as everyone else despite being a priest.

Alone

skekTah wasn't sure why exactly he was here. It had been skekEkt's request that he attend this choir rehearsal, but the Schemer saw no real gain in such a thing. Yet here he was, listening to the Ornamentalist lead the choir practice with wide sweeps of his arms.

They were not alone, of course. Though choir practices were led by the Ornamentalist, the choir was only used during ceremonies. Such ceremonies were placed under skekZok the Ritual-Master's command. As such, skekZok was present to serve as the final judge for the selected singers.

skekTek had worked hard on the vocal chord transplants to hit every note the Ritual-Master needed in the choir. It had taken lots of trial and error but the Science succeeded in his endeavor. The lessened amount of Podling decapitations spoke of this.

skekTah listened to the song half-heartedly. His mind was elsewhere. Somewhere far darker and much colder.

It had been one hundred trine since skekVar, his final ally, had died.

skekTah had not attempted to reach out again after this. The closest he'd gotten was a brief, if initially unwilling, realignment with skekLach but that barely lasted a trine before the Collector met his end, leaving the Schemer alone again. skekTah decided to remain a drifter whose only true alliance lay to the Emperor.

He'd suffered enough losses for over eight hundred trine of existence. He was tired of trying to hold connections with others.

Which made this sudden summons worrisome.

He bore no real connection to skekEkt beyond acquiring clothes and other nesting materials from him and that was purely based on payment, not friendship. The Schemer had tormented the Ornamentalist and the Gourmand much in the past and he was certainly an enemy of the Chamberlain's. skekEkt had no reason to suddenly seek skekTah out like this, especially to serve as a third party during a trivial choir practice.

Which left the true mastermind of this summons to only be skekZok. That was also worrisome to the Schemer.

He bore little connection to the Ritual-Master. ZokZah was one of the urSkek that he had first met when he had joined SoSu's rebellious campaign back in their home realm. Beyond this initial welcome, he had held very little connection to the older and wiser being. This carried on after the division. Even as the Note-Taker, his connection with skekZok was poor and undeveloped beyond a deep respect for the more influential Skeksis.

So why now?

Why was skekZok discreetly approaching him now?

A cold vice suddenly gripped the Schemer's heart. Realization hit.

Of course skekZok would wait until now. skekVar and the rest were gone. Even when skekLach was still around, it had likely proven too risky to approach. Now with every ally gone and skekTah placing himself in total self-isolation from the rest of the court, it was a perfect time for the Ritual-Master to approach.

But was it truly skekZok's choice?

Or had skekOk, the conniving liar of a Scroll-Keeper, somehow manipulated his alliance leader into fancying the Schemer as a fresh new ally? skekOk had tried for ages to have skekTah on his side due to their similar occupations before the Gelfling Gathering. With only eleven of them left, tensions were running high to tie drifters down permanently.

skekSil had no reason to bring the Schemer into his circle. Their jobs were rivaling and the Chamberlain had all he needed on his side. He had the necessities of dress and food, as well as court diplomacy. He had just as many secrets to use for himself as skekTah did. Not to mention that skekSil was the Emperor's favorite, a position he clung to viciously. No, he certainly had no need of the Schemer. The Schemer would be too much trouble to control.

skekUng would have nothing to do with skekTah either. There were too many past transgressions between them for the Garthim Master to even consider taking skekTah in. Their hatred for one another ran too deep. No, skekUng would sooner see the Schemer banished than dare to call him an ally.

But there was no bad blood between skekTah and skekZok. skekShod was too engrossed in his gold counting to care who he was allied with. skekOk was the only one with deeper motives for pulling skekTah into an alliance.

But…what if skekZok did have a motive of his own?

His thoughts were broken by an awful screech of a voice. The Schemer ducked, hands over his ears.

"Who did that?!" skekZok roared, suddenly at full attention.

"That one~!" skekEkt sang, pointing out the offending Podling.

skekTah turned away as the Ritual-Master marched forward, staff in hand. The Ornamentalist shuffled backward to the Schemer's side, giggling behind a hand. The sound of flesh ripping, followed by a disgusting pop, promised the Podling's swift decapitation.

"Eeeeewwww!" skekEkt snickered, disgusted but highly amused.

"That should be all for today, skekEkt. These ones will do," skekZok stated, wiping his bloodied hands off on a towel.

"Excellent!" skekEkt chirped. "You heard him, Podlings. Move!"

The Ornamentalist marched away. The Podling choir listlessly followed after him in a stuttering line. After a few minutes, the last one disappeared into the hall without a sound.

The chamber was strangely empty without them in it. Even skekEkt's dramatic flair would have been appreciated. Now it was just the Schemer and the Ritual-Master, one waiting in silence while the other continued wiping his claws.

"I think by now, you've puzzled out why exactly you were asked to attend this practice of ours," skekZok stated.

"You wanted something," skekTah confirmed.

"I have…been troubled lately. Tensions between alliances are growing higher as the Great Conjunction draws nearer," the larger Skeksis explained, disposing of the towel once his hands and talons were clean. "Each alliance bears at least three members. The Emperor holds the advantage, despite his withering state of existence."

skekTah found himself involuntarily flinching at this. Speaking of the Emperor's age was a silent taboo now. Though obvious, it was a topic nobody dared to speak about. The fact that the Ritual-Master said it out loud before company spoke volumes.

"Oh, stop that. It's very obvious what will happen from here. I've foreseen this," skekZok said harshly. "With the Gelfling nearing extinction so quickly, Gelfling essence will dry up in due time. I've seen that in less than a hundred trine, the Emperor will wither into a state where he'll be incapable of proper rule. This will result in what can only be a royal challenge, one that Emperor skekSo cannot win."

"You shouldn't—"

"You still fear him, even so aged and feeble? He is hardly a threat," skekZok stated harshly. "The only reason he still holds power is because of his paranoia and his viciousness. The first instant he drops the scepter, that fear will be gone."

This was wrong. They shouldn't be discussing this. If the Emperor overheard them…

"He remains on the throne because of his own will and because his alliance has yet to usurp him," the Ritual-Master continued, finger his staff idly. "We've all seen the greed, the power lust, in the Chamberlain's eyes. If the Emperor wasn't so menacing, skekSil would've made his move by now. Once the Emperor is dead, we all know who will rise to take the throne."

"skekUng won't let him." The words spilled out before the Schemer could stop them. "He'd never let the Chamberlain rule."

"Indeed, the Garthim Master wants to rule as well," skekZok nodded. "Anything the Chamberlain wants, the Garthim Master has seen fit to get in the way of. There is nobody to stop him at this point. The Emperor is too feeble to break up arguments. The law forbids physical confrontation among ourselves, at least in front of the Emperor."

skekTah could already name over two dozen incidents after that law had been enacted where Skeksis had gotten physical with one another behind the Emperor's back. A majority of those incidents involved skekUng in one form or another, whether as the aggressor or—in one incident—the victim.

"Their alliances will provide the power struggle necessary for ascension to the throne. Upon issuing a challenge, they will duel. Only one victor will emerge from it, as the law dictates," skekZok said, looking at the Schemer.

"You're acting as if the Emperor is dead already, skekZok," skekTah noted nervously.

"In the next one hundred trine, he may be. I have seen it. The Emperor will not survive to the Great Conjunction. The lack of Gelfling essence will be the death of him." The Ritual-Master smiled cruelly. "Isn't that tragically ironic? The Gelfling will be our doom, yet we require them in order to stay young and keep the Emperor alive."

"This is treasonous talk," the Schemer warned.

"And in what position is the Emperor to punish me? Second to the Chamberlain, the Emperor falls on me for my influence. I can change the course of everything in this castle at will, Schemer," skekZok countered.

skekZok was telling the truth yet there were hundreds of lies buried in it. Everyone had begun losing faith in skekZok's prophecies after the Gelfling Gathering, when he'd failed to predict the uprising of the formerly-peaceful species. The rest of the court begun to divine their own religions and ceremonies behind his back. skekZok still held his power with the Emperor, but it would never hold up if someone else took the throne.

…If someone else took it…

"You want to be Emperor," skekTah realized.

"Don't we all?" skekZok questioned, gesturing to the runes painted along the walls, half-buried under insignias and tapestries of all kinds. "Emperor skekSo will not live forever. skekSil and skekUng will fight each other for the throne. While they destroy each other, I will take my rightful place as Emperor of our court."

"And what if it doesn't pan out the way you want it to? What if, say, skekUng defeats skekSil and takes the throne?" skekTah suggested.

"I am a patient creature. skekUng is a reckless oaf and will get himself, and perhaps his foolish allies, killed before long. skekSil would be a paranoid ruler who would likely see us all banished for past slights, if not make slaves of us from what secrets he has collected. Either way, they will be killed or usurped before long and I will wrench control from them."

"You sound so certain of your victory," skekTah noted, feeling highly uncomfortable.

"I have seen it. It is fate." skekZok straightened, coming out of his reverie. "I have summoned you here for a reason you have likely predicted. Once the Emperor is dead, you will no longer be safe. skekSil will never have you. skekUng hates you. You have no living allies. I offer you a chance. Ally with me and you will survive past all of that."

"If it goes the way your visions have predicted," skekTah corrected.

"You doubt me?" skekZok hissed, rising to his full height, temper steaming.

"I doubt everyone. As you said, I have no living allies. Why should I trust you without question? I am not skekShod, the mindless gold-biter. I am not skekOk, who you still have trouble tying down to your alliance. I am skekTah the loner, servant of the Emperor."

"An Emperor that is on the fast road to death," skekZok stated, settling down. "skekOk will be forced to make a choice in the near future. He will run back to me, as he has since skekLach died. Nobody else trusts him enough to keep him. As for you, you too will be forced to make a choice. I am offering you a solution now rather than waiting until it is too late. I am granting you a reprieve from your lonely existence, skekTah. I do not do such things casually."

"I am aware of this and I thank you for the thought," skekTah said. "May I think on this?"

"Answer before you leave or I will be forced to rescind my offer," skekZok ordered.

That was troubling, but understandable. skekZok had spoken treason here today. He likely did not want skekTah just walking away without giving the Ritual-Master an answer. skekZok needed to know whether to consider the Schemer with or against him. Cruel, but clever.

It sounded nice, to be part of an alliance again. It had been one hundred trine since skekTah had a living ally. He'd survived alone this whole time purely by way of secrets and his withering favor with the Emperor.

If what skekZok said was true, the Emperor may be dead in just another one hundred trine.

If it was true…

skekTah sighed. The choice was obvious, if not one that he truly did not wish to make. It felt like skekLach all over again. Every flaw and mistake of his current path had been pointed out and exploited in order to change his alliance. skekZok knew this game and had played it well. In the possible future power struggle, skekTah would lose no matter which contender won.

Favor with the Emperor had saved him on more than one occasion. Once skekSo died, that favoritism would die with him. skekSil and skekUng would abuse or banish him if either rose to the throne.

But skekZok would not. If they allied now, perhaps the Ritual-Master's influence would be enough to carry him over the competition when the time came. If skekZok took the throne, he had no reason to harm or punish the Schemer. skekTah would be safe in that scenario.

If this was all true, there was really only one choice. The Emperor was growing weaker every day. The Gelfling were nearing extinction.

skekTah sighed before meeting the blue gaze of the Ritual-Master. "If I ally with you, I will be safe?"

"As safe as I can make you, yes," skekZok promised.

"How safe is that?"

"Much safer than you are now. Much safer still than you will be once the Emperor has passed."

"…I must refuse."

skekZok bristled, rage boiling. "You wish to make a mockery of my kindness?"

"No," skekTah replied. "But I do not wish to rush headlong into an alliance based on predictions and visions. I was corralled into an alliance once and look where it landed me. No, I need fact and visible evidence of your prediction before I decide to place my safety in your hands."

"…So you plan to wait."

"I plan to wait. Ask again when the Emperor is actually declared to be dying. You've swayed me to your cause but I will not be leashed. Not yet."

"I see…" skekZok was clearly disappointed.

"My beak will stay shut on this matter," skekTah said, turning away. "You're fine unless your beak spills something first."

"It will not."

"Then do not fret. I have no reason to see you lose your influence," the Schemer said. "Out of the three contending parties, I'd much rather see you in control than either of the other two."

"I will keep that in mind when the time draws near," the Ritual-Master decided, satisfied with that.

skekTah left the chamber, mind a tumultuous storm of arguments. He had much to think about.

The next one hundred trine would be long. The end result would be the final determinate of his fate.


	24. Snow

It decided to snow briefly here a bit ago. I wondered how Skeksis would react to snow, since we haven't seen it on Thra yet, as far as I'm aware.

I also want to briefly explore the relationship between skekZok and skekLi that I hinted at in Old. So this takes place shortly past the 300 trine mark, after the Machinist's death.

Snow

"What is that stuff? I've never seen it before!"

"I don't know. I've never seen it before either."

"Will you both hush up? I'm writing!" skekOk barked, glaring bitterly at the babbling duo.

skekEkt and skekAyuk, having rushed to the windows only minutes earlier, turned to the smaller Skeksis in surprise. The Scroll-Keeper glared bitterly down his needle-like beak at them before returning to his writings. skekOk disliked being disturbed when he was trying to work.

skekTah, standing across the library from the trio, also found his interest drawn to the windows. Or what was falling outside of them. It was very strange.

White stuff was falling slowly from the sky in tiny clumps. Not like rain or even hail. This was different. The Note-Taker had never seen such a thing before.

"Perhaps skekTek knows what it is," skekAyuk suggested.

"Yes, yes! The Scientist will know what it is! He must!" skekEkt agreed.

"Then let's go ask!" the Gourmand said, turning and waddling toward the library exit.

"Come with, come with! Let us see what this strange stuff is!" skekEkt urged, waving to skekTah and skekOk.

"Pah! I don't care!" skekOk huffed, quill scribbling away at a scroll.

The Ornamentalist pouted before turning his eyes on the Note-Taker. With a lavish wave of his sleeve, the taller urged skekTah to join them.

Usually, tailing any of skekSil's allies meant trouble…but curiosity was a hungry thing.

skekTah looked out the window and decided. He rose and followed, much to skekEkt's delight.

"Oh, brilliant! skekTek will know! He'll tell us what this strange white stuff is!" the Ornamentalist declared.

So he followed skekEkt and the Gourmand as they paraded down the bleak halls toward the Chamber of Life. A few other Skeksis noted the strange stuff falling from the sky, pausing at windows to look at it. Nobody else seemed to be going to the Scientist for an explanation, though.

"And what are you lot up to?"

skekUng lurched from the shadows of a corridor, lumbering into the window-laden outer hall. skekEkt and skekAyuk came to an abrupt stop, the Note-Taker nearly crashing into the Gourmand's broad back. The duo gesticulated to the window, babbling at once.

"Shut up! We can't understand you if you both chatter at the same time!" skekNa hissed, slinking behind his larger companion. His lone eye caught sight of the Note-Taker. "You! What are they screeching about?"

"The stuff falling outside," skekTah replied, indicating the window.

The two title-less Skeksis approached the windows, beaks nearly touching the glass. They saw the strange stuff. With a rough shove, skekUng flung a window open and hissed. Everyone recoiled. The air that rushed inside was frigid, terribly cold. The Note-Taker immediately began to shiver, all of the warmth sucked out of his slim frame.

"Why is it so cold outside?" skekEkt whined, curling in on himself. "It was warm yesterday!"

skekTah shuffled forward and lashed out with a hand to catch one of the floating bits of white. He shivered. It was cold and wet. Pulling his hand close, he opened his fingers and blinked.

There was only water dotting his palm. No sign of the white thing he had caught.

He tried again and again. Each time he caught a white clump, he came back with his palm wet. A flick of his tongue told him that it was water. He didn't understand. Was this like tiny hail?

"I don't get it," he muttered.

"Shut that window already! It's freezing in here!" skekUng barked, annoyed as he rubbed his arms.

skekEkt moved to help skekTah reach the window, using his longer arms to catch the edge of it. The wind whipped, threatening to rip the pane from their grasp. The temperature was dropping rapidly. skekTah could see the ground below was covered in this white stuff.

The window clanked before being pulled closer. skekTah squeaked when a third Skeksis joined them in their efforts—skekNa. He used his hook to catch the edge of the window, pulling it in close enough for all three of them to shut it firmly, killing the flow of cold air.

skekTah barely suppressed the urge to thank the other.

skekNa hadn't done it to be nice. He'd done it to please skekUng, his ally. Nothing more, nothing less. There was no need for thanks.

skekUng was already marching away, complaining about the cold. With a brief nod, skekNa tailed the larger. They vanished around the next bend, heading deeper into the castle to escape the chill of the outer hall.

"It's frozen water? Like hail?" skekAyuk asked, looking at the Note-Taker.

"Seems like it," skekTah muttered, wiping his wet hand on his outer robe. "skekTek probably knows more. It wasn't hard, like hail is. If there was substance, I didn't feel it. It was like there was nothing there at all. Just cold and wet."

"Weird," the Gourmand muttered, looking out the window.

skekEkt insisted that they still go see the Scientist. skekTah remained with them, equally curious. They headed down the floors of the castle until reaching the Chamber of Life, which echoed with the noises of the animals that skekTek was studying. The Scientist was shuffling about, muttering.

"skekTek! Have you looked outside?" skekEkt asked. "Stuff is falling and we don—"

"I'm aware!" skekTek barked, clearly annoyed. "You're, what, the seventh Skeksis to tell me already? I know!"

"…Sorry," the Ornamentalist muttered, hunching up.

"Forget it. It's understandable," skekTek huffed, jotting something down on a stray sheet of parchment. "It's something new and you want to know what it is. Well, I know what it is."

"What is it, then?" skekAyuk asked.

"Snow."

"S…now?" skekAyuk repeated. "It's not hail?"

"Think of it as a thin, tiny version of hail with no solid substance. Or you can't detect the solidity of it with touch. It melts too quickly to an aqueous form. It manifests at low temperatures."

"It is rather cold outside," skekEkt admitted.

"Exactly," skekTek confirmed. "Probably stray winds from the east mountains. Snow accumulates up there at higher elevations. The Grottan have seen snow frequently in their homes."

"Will it go away? It's cold," skekTah asked, shivering.

"It should, Note-Taker. Just an anomaly, that's all this is. Should be gone in a day or two, if not by morning," the Scientist stated, collecting a few small containers. "I'm off to see this stuff up close…for study. Come if you want."

The Note-Taker followed the Scientist's lagging walk. After a bit of chatter, skekEkt and skekAyuk followed.

skekTek had recently taken an interest in his own blood work, amputating his own leg to study it further. The limb was replaced by an artificial one crafted by the Machinist and, though he could still walk, it was with a heavy limp and dragging steps. His speed and movement was greatly reduced. Lately, skekTek had sought further help with the usage of a cane.

skekTah didn't see the purpose in it. Why amputate your own leg? Couldn't skekTek study the legs of other beings and compare it to his own? Did that level of study warrant amputation? With the amount of pain and trouble skekTek went through afterward, the Note-Taker didn't think the price was worth the results the Scientist had gained for his scientific curiosity.

The limb was gone now. One couldn't just regrow it. Why remove it at all?

Reaching the ground floor, they found that they were not alone. The front gates of the castle were open. The Gelfling guards had withdrawn, most unused to the snow as the Skeksis were. The ground outside was coated in the chilly, white stuff. Most of the other Skeksis were there, staring at the strange stuff.

skekTek busied himself with collecting samples, mumbling to himself. skekEkt and skekAyuk shuffled to the Chamberlain's side, babbling out what the Scientist had told them. skekTah searched for skekVar and moved to join him.

And then he saw skekLi and paused.

The Satirist, dressed in his shining trinkets and colorful garb, was dancing in the snow. Grabbing handfuls of it and tossing it in the sky. Laughing and dancing. Acting like it was just another warm day.

"Wh… What?" skekTah choked, confused.

"Been doing that since it started falling," skekShod hissed, popping up to the Note-Taker's left. "Won't come in, no matter how much skekZok yells. Gone crazy."

The usually quiet Treasurer shifted, clutching the casket close to his side. The taller rarely spoke, content to stay back and count his gold. skekTah could count a total of four times that he'd spoken with skekShod and only once where he'd spoken with ShodYod. Sometimes the Note-Taker forgot about the other. He wondered if others did too.

"Don't see why he does that. Too cold," skekShod huffed, breath coming out in a cloud of white. "Much too cold…"

"skekLi, get back in here! You'll freeze!" skekZok shouted, marching onto the snow before retreating with a hiss. "skekLi! Satirist, listen to me!"

"Oh, stop yelling. Come and play, skekZok! It's refreshingly cool!" skekLi cried, twirling amongst the snowfall. "It's been much too hot lately. Isn't this so pretty?"

"You ninny! Die if you wish!" the Ritual-Master snarled, turning away.

"I will not die, skekZok, you old bore!" skekLi teased, gathering up a mass of the snow and crushing it between his hands. "Ooh! Chilly!"

"He really should come in, sire. He'll get sick. We're not used to these temperatures," skekTek muttered, looking at the Emperor.

"Agreed," skekSo nodded. "skekLi, come in! You've played enough in that stuff for one evening!"

"But sire, it may be gone tomorrow! Let me play more! Please?" skekLi begged, rising from where he'd flopped back-first into the snow.

"…A little longer, but then come in! The evening meal will be soon and I will not tolerate you coming in wet and cold!" the Emperor ordered, leaving the doorway.

Most of the group left, eager to escape the cold. skekZok remained a while longer, watching the Satirist dance and leave Skeksis-shaped impressions in the snow. skekVar and skekGra also remained, ordering the shivering Gelfling away and manning the gates themselves. skekTah too stayed, if only out of curiosity.

The Satirist was always such a strange Skeksis. Too colorful, too loud, too cheery. The Ritual-Master once called him "a ray of sunshine in a dark room", which skekLi had giggled at. When new things came, the Satirist would jump in without fear and explore it. Somehow, he always came out safe and sound.

skekTah wished he could be that brave. But he was not. He was small and weak and cowardly. Oh, to be skekLi for a day…

On second thought, perhaps that wouldn't be all good. skekLi got into plenty of trouble. Colorful and pretty things tended to vanish around him. skekEkt had lodged more than one complaint about theft against the Satirist, who enjoyed tormenting the Ornamentalist. Yes, perhaps it was best to remain the Note-Taker and let skekLi do as he pleased with his silly antic-filled life.

The sky darkened as night fell. The snow began to lessen. skekLi was still playing in the snow when the temperature dropped further, forcing skekTah to withdraw to the inner hall for warmth.

skekZok finally had enough. "skekLi, enough. Dinner will be starting soon. It is time to cease this nonsense and come in."

"It's not nonsense, skekZok. Look!" skekLi pointed at one of the strange impressions he'd made in the snow. "It's a snow angel!"

"…Come in, skekLi. You're shivering," the Ritual-Master insisted, beckoning with a hand.

Though a drifter between alliances, skekLi seemed to show favor toward skekZok. It was funny because skekZok had shown nothing but distaste for the Satirist shortly after the division. They were two opposing forces—one a staunch worker and the other a happy-go-lucky entertainer. Yet somewhere along the way, skekLi had begun hanging around skekZok more…and skekZok became less harsh and critical of skekLi. It was all very strange, in the Note-Taker's opinion.

"Hmph! Fine!" skekLi sniffed, rising from the snow and shaking off, arms twining around his chest with a shiver. "But only because you asked so nicely."

The Satirist left the cold snow behind, following the Ritual-Master back inside. skekVar and skekGra pulled the heavy gate doors shut, locking out the chill. For this, skekTah was grateful.

Nobody else went outside that evening. The windows stayed firmly closed. The stone of the castle seemed to have gained a sudden bite to it. It was rather uncomfortable. The evening meal was completed and many of the court retired to their chambers early in search of the comfort and warmth of their beds.

skekTah was no exception to this. He returned to his chambers and burrowed into a rough tangle of blankets atop his bed. If one looked at him, they may have mistaken him for a nesting animal of some kind, not a grand Lord of the Crystal Castle.

But nobody was looking at him. Everyone was in their own chambers. skekTah was alone.

The Note-Taker poked his beak out to peer out the window above his desk. Snow fell but it was not as thick or much as earlier. Just a few clumps here and there. Perhaps by morning, there would be none at all.

He didn't know what to think of the snow. It sure looked pretty, if skekLi's extravagant display of rebellion was anything to go by. It was certainly cold and wet, things Skeksis generally disliked. skekTah hadn't enjoyed all the shivering he did today.

Maybe seeing it every few trine would be okay. It broke up the monotony of seeing the dead, rocky landscape of Skarith. Most plant life had begun to die out in recent trine and most animals had withdrawn from the castle grounds. At least the snow made things look interesting again, if only for a bit.

But it was so cold! Oh, why must it be cold? He couldn't stand the cold!

skekTah shivered, withdrawing beneath his blankets. The snow was pretty to look at, but being out in it would be horrible. How skekLi did it, the Note-Taker did not know. He was sure he couldn't do it himself.

If the snow wasn't cold, perhaps he wouldn't mind if it stayed…

The snow was all gone the next morning. The warm weather returned, much to everyone's joy. Snow would not fall on Skarith again that trine.


	25. Storm

This one is partially based on a big windstorm that hit my area over the summer. It was shortly after I had read Shadows, so Dark Crystal bunnies were spawning. How would the Gelfling deal with such destruction?

Then I decided to put skekTah in the midst of such an event. Poor guy…

This takes place before the Gelfling Gathering but after Tah broke his back. Somewhere in there, roughly.

Storm

Why was he out here again? Not even a trine after his back had broken and here he was, out in the forest with skekMal. Thankfully, there was no tree climbing this time. Just tracking game.

An event that the Note-Taker had no interest in, yet the Hunter had pulled him in on this task with a few promises and a guarantee that he wouldn't need to even touch a tree if he so wished it.

That had been broken quickly. He'd touched dozens of trees. He'd had to. The ground was anything but smooth and with his back brace, he'd lost his balance more than once while attempting to maneuver.

How was skekMal able to move so efficiently here? He was even bigger and bulkier than skekTah!

Yet, like a flowing river, the Hunter in all his hunting regalia moved swiftly and easily through the harsh terrain and the grabbing brush. His steps never faltered and not once did he trip up, unlike his smaller companion. skekMal moved with the confidence of a top predator at home in its territory. He knew the Dark Wood like the back of his hand.

He had absolutely nothing to fear. Nothing at all.

…Except maybe the weather, unpredictable thing that it can be.

skekTah hissed as more raindrops pelted him from above. Even the thick canopy of the forest couldn't keep out all of the rain. It fell sharp and hard, like needles. Even skekMal was covering his head, thick cloak suddenly doubling as an umbrella of sorts. skekTah was quick to copy him as best he could.

It was hard to pull your cloak over your head when you had a stiff back brace to break in and very little upper body movement to work with.

The wind was whipping rather hard too. It roared. If it had a voice, skekTah imagined it'd be yelling and raging like skekUng was prone to doing. What a terrifying image. He banished it quickly, focusing on his companion.

skekMal had slowed down. The wind had grown in strength and was beginning to push against the Hunter. The muddy ground was slick and keeping one's grip was hard. Combine them and even skekMal was beginning to find the path treacherous.

"Maybe we should go home!" skekTah called.

skekMal gave no response. The Note-Taker momentarily feared his words had been ripped away by the wind. Then the Hunter paused and responded in that deep growl of a voice he had.

"I've been trying. The wind's too strong and the storm is getting worse. We'd better bed down somewhere and wait it out."

Bed down? As in…stay here? skekTah didn't like that thought. He wanted to return to the castle, where it was warm and dry and safe.

The trees creaked ominously around them. skekTah huddled close to skekMal and voiced his complaint. Fear tinged his shaking voice.

The Hunter sighed and shook his head solemnly. "We turned around an hour ago, if you didn't notice. We'll never make it back in this mess. Come on. I'll figure out a shelter."

skekTah barely suppressed a whine. Not that it could've been heard over the violent crack of thunder overhead. He quickly darted after the retreating Hunter, struggling not to slip in the mud. He was cold, wet, filthy, and tired. Frankly, he was completely miserable.

And now he had to sleep out here. Wonderful.

It couldn't possibly get any worse.

skekMal managed to scout out the aboveground burrow of a ruffnaw. The scent was stale. The creature had abandoned this den weeks ago. It looked sturdy enough but, to keep it from collapsing on them in the storm, skekMal reinforced the packed earth with broad sticks and what large rocks he could safely move over the mud. When it was fortified, skekTah was firmly pushed inside, complaints ignored. skekMal followed, hunkering down near the burrow mouth with his bow and quiver in hand.

Lightning flashed overhead, followed by the sharp crack of thunder. It made the Note-Taker jump. He remembered his first encounter with thunderstorms like this, back during their first few trine on Thra. It wasn't very pleasant at all.

skekTah huddled against the back wall, shivering. What a sight he must look like, robes spattered in mud and drenched with rain, shivering violently in an old ruffnaw den with the Hunter as his only companion. Oh, how the others would laugh if they could see this!

Thankfully, they could not.

skekTah briefly wondered about the castle. As this same storm hitting them? Had skekSa and skekGra returned safely from their assignments? Was anyone else stranded out here?

A loud crash made him jump, striking his head on the ceiling. He yelped, curling in more on himself, eyes watering. skekMal spared him a glance before looking out into the storm, a frown on his beak.

"Water's loosening the roots. Not good," he muttered darkly.

skekTah had no clue what the other was muttering about. Rubbing his head and curling up more, he decided he would try to sleep. Hopefully by morning, the storm will have passed on and they could aim for home.

The night was full of crashes. skekTah slept little. skekMal did not sleep at all.

.o.o.o.o.

The Note-Taker blinked, mind fuzzy. Had he actually slept? It didn't feel like it. He slowly lifted his head to look around the shelter.

skekMal was not there.

He panicked briefly before realizing there really was only one place for the Hunter to go—outside. So skekTah carefully crawled forward until he got past the burrow mouth, where he slowly and laboriously stood. The back brace made movement difficult, though skekTek had promised that it would loosen over time and give the Note-Taker more mobility. skekTah wished he had that mobility now.

skekMal was nearby, surveying the area. skekTah moved to join him when he realized something. The clearing around them looked all wrong.

It was too open. Trees lay all around, ripped from the ground, roots exposed to the open air. It wasn't just a few trees. It was dozens. They were all over, in every direction.

"What happened?" skekTah breathed.

"Big rainstorm, followed by a powerful windstorm," skekMal stated. "All the water loosened the soil, letting the wind uproot the trees. I've never seen it happen but I've heard stories…"

This was terrifying. The Dark Wood, so menacing, suddenly looked so barren. There were huge holes in the canopy where trees had fallen. It was sunnier now, lighting up the paths. It should've been relieving.

skekTah couldn't stop shaking. Those trees had fallen everywhere. They were lucky not to have been crushed under one.

"I want to go home," he choked.

He sounded like a child. Great Thra, he felt like a child. It was justified, in his mind. This level of destruction warranted such childish behavior.

skekMal sighed and nodded. "Then let's go."

The Hunter led the way, carefully maneuvering them around a majority of the destruction. A few trees required clambering over but it was nothing horrible. skekTah stayed close, not wishing to be left behind.

He wanted as far away from this place as possible.


	26. Lost

I was listening to the song "Willow Tree March" by Paper Kites. It was very helpful. I cried.

This is post-Legends, around the 750 trine mark. It's been roughly one trine since skekVar died.

Lost

Those were skekLach's robes, bundled up messily in skekUng's arms as he strode into the throne room.

Those were skekLach's robes…

Why did skekUng have them?

Why?

skekTah's heart was ice. He didn't want to hear this. He wanted to turn, to run away. He didn't want to be here, to know what skekUng was about to say, to—

"The Collector is dead, sire."

No.

No.

Nonononononono.

Not skekLach too. Not him. No. Please, no.

The court erupted with sound, confused. The Emperor rose, demanding explanations. skekZok moved to claim the robes, to prepare for the funeral. skekUng spoke of a battle with Gelfling, a battle that the Collector did not survive.

skekTah was deaf to it. Frozen. Alone. The noise couldn't reach him.

skekLach was dead.

His only ally. His final ally. The last one he dared to call a companion.

Nobody seemed to notice the lack of reaction from the Schemer. Their focus was on the Garthim Master, on the Emperor, on the Ritual-Master, on the robes left behind from the Collector. Their attention was on the story, their anger fueled by the words skekUng spoke.

"Death to the Gelfling!"

"The Gelfling must pay!"

"Destroy the Gelfling!"

These words boomed around skekTah but he was not there. He was in the mausoleum one trine ago, after skekVar's funeral. Alone. Hurt. Afraid.

 _"_ _Don't fear, Schemer. You are not alone. You have me. I will be your ally, your defender. With me, we will rule this castle and all in it. Work with me, skekTah, and you will never be alone again. As long as I hold the Emperor's favor, there is nothing I cannot do. I cannot fall."_

The scent of animals and metals. The snarling of hounds, trained to attack all but Skeksis. The feel of a metal limb, crafted by skekHak and completed by skekTah, around his shoulders. A stern gaze watching him, judging, guarding. A large shadow looming over him, reminding him of his place.

A prize collected in the wake of death.

But death had come to claim that person, his remaining ally. For an ally, skekLach had been. He was the only one to approach skekTah, to offer him safety after the General's untimely death. Nobody else had even looked at him after the funeral.

Perhaps it had been done out of selfishness or greed. To collect another ally, another pawn in the Collector's journey to the throne.

skekTah had liked to think that maybe, deep down, skekLach had done it out of friendship. They had once been friends long ago, during the census. Perhaps out of mercy or pity, the Collector extended a hand to pick up the broken Schemer, to dust him off and put him to use again. To give skekTah a purpose, a job, a reason to keep going.

Now it was all gone, snatched away as the rest had been.

skekTah finally found his ability to move. He numbly turned away and slunk into a corridor. The last pieces of skekUng's story reached his ears as he fled.

"—the bottom of the cliff. He had to have died on impact, if not shortly afterward. He must've fallen during the conflict, if he was not pushed by the Gelfling. He was dead when I reached him, sire."

Those words rang strangely in the Schemer's ears as he left the throne room behind.

A Gelfling could not push a Skeksis. skekLach was among the largest of their kind. There would need to be dozens to move him, let alone shove him off a cliff. skekLach was not foolish enough to let Gelfling get that close, nor position himself that close to the edge of a cliff in the middle of a battle. Caution was in the Collector's nature.

That was…impossible…

Right?

.o.o.o.o.

skekTah wandered for what felt like hours, aimless in his destination. His mind raced in circles as he thought over the story he'd heard snippets of.

skekLach could not have died like that. He wasn't that foolish. A glorious battle was skekLach's death, not some push off of a cliff. A pack of Gelfling could not have achieved such a feat, not against skekLach.

skekUng had left something out. Something nobody else was seeing.

But what was it? And why was it left out?

He didn't understand. His head hurt. His heart was a stone. His eyes burned from tears that had stopped falling a while ago.

skekTah did not know why he cried. He and skekLach were not friends. Just allies. There was nothing deeper there, not like during the census. That had ended after the ruffnaw attack, after the brutal amputation of skekMal's secondary arms.

"Schemer! There you are!"

skekTah turned, numb. He didn't react to the appearance of the Garthim Master. skekUng usually struck fear and caution in him. Not today, though.

skekUng drew close. "You vanished. skekZok is preparing for the funeral."

"skekLach…is really dead?"

"He is," skekUng nodded.

There was a smirk curling onto that short beak. It was menacing. Triumphant, even. skekTah didn't like it. It was hiding something.

"…not possible…"

"I saw the body myself. I brought his robes and remains back," skekUng declared.

"skekLach would not die in such a way," skekTah stated coldly. "He would never get that close to a cliff edge. Or let Gelfling get close enough to him to push him."

"…He wouldn't, would he?" skekUng challenged.

"He wouldn't," skekTah confirmed. Bravery flared in him. "You're not telling the whole story."

skekUng's smirk died. He blinked slowly before a snarl broke from him. He seized the Schemer by his collared ruff, shaking him. skekTah was unafraid. Numbness made him bold.

"You lied about something, didn't you, skekUng?" he accused, numbness killing all of the fear in him.

skekUng suddenly smiled. It was not a happy smile. It was a knowing one, like the smiles skekLach gave. Like the smile skekTah gave when he was blackmailing others.

"…I did. The Gelfling didn't kill skekLach," skekUng admitted.

He let the Schemer go, stepping back. His smile did not die. Those red eyes glittered with joyous mirth.

"I killed him."

skekTah froze.

"The Collector has been the favorite for too long. I was waiting on skekVar to make a move, to take him out. Or even the Chamberlain, the bumbling fool," skekUng said. "But then the General died. What is it skekVar used to say? If you want a job done right, do it yourself? Probably one of the few useful things he was good at—giving advice."

The Schemer shuddered, shrinking in on himself, the fear breaking past the numbness to swallow him.

It had been easy to blame the Gelfling. Ever since the Gelfling Gathering, one could do anything and blame it on Gelfling. skekTah didn't even let the thought reach him that perhaps the Gelfling were entirely uninvolved in this incident. He'd simply…agreed without question…as everyone else had…

"There were no Gelfling. Just skekLach and I," skekUng stated, smile growing. "He was so trusting of me. He didn't suspect me of planning anything. He's been the favorite so long that he became complacent. What a mistake!"

No…

"It was easy enough to throw him off of the cliff. He may be bigger but I am much stronger. He didn't even get to fight. Pathetic!"

No.

"With him out of the way, it will be easy to worm my way into the Emperor's graces. My only opponent now is the Chamberlain."

No!

"And the best part? Nobody questioned me! Just like I told the fool as he lay dying at the bottom of the cliff. After this funeral, he will be forgotten. His time is over."

"You lied!" skekTah hissed, rage boiling in him, melting away the numbness and burning the fear. "You lied to the Emperor!"

"Any of us would have in pursuit of such power. Don't talk as if you cared about him, Schemer. You were his pawn and he was your guard," skekUng accused. "You used one another."

"Lying to the Emperor is a crime!"

"So is stealing essence, Schemer!" skekUng shot back.

skekTah gasped, withdrawing. _Oh no…_

"Don't think I don't know. skekTek told me everything the instant I got away from the throne room, before I came looking for you," skekUng said, teeth bared viciously. "I know all about skekLach's theft. And your hand in it! If the Emperor knew about that…"

skekTah shuddered violently. _Oh Thra, no! He does know!_

It's not as if he'd had a choice. skekLach had been almost giddy to reveal his crime to the Schemer once they became allies. Though appalled, skekTah had been in no position to use that information.

Instead, it was he that was used.

He'd been sent to retrieve essence and ensure skekTek stayed silent using his cache of secrets. It took suspicion off of the Collector and redirected any concerns of an essence shortage onto the Schemer, since the previously accused General was dead. For the past trine, he'd endured accusations and threats from their Emperor and others in the court…and skekLach did only what was required to keep skekTah from being severely punished or outright banished, to further use him.

It's not as if the Schemer had enjoyed doing it. He hadn't wanted to pit the Scientist against himself. He received his medical herbs from skekTek, as well as maintenance for his back brace. To betray the Skeksis providing those services was a horrible idea. The consequences could be fatal!

But he'd done it anyway.

Because skekLach had told him to.

It was no surprise that the Scientist had sold him out immediately when his biggest threat was dead. skekTah had even predicted it once he'd known about the theft. But he'd never thought it'd be this soon.

Without skekLach, he had no defense. If this was brought to the Emperor, he'd never survive. If he was not slain, he would be banished. Either punishment would end him, as it had the rest that had fallen before him.

"See? I can use blackmail too, Schemer," skekUng said smugly. "Tell on me and I'll ensure you are dragged down with me. I'll trust you to make the right decision."

With that, the Garthim Master turned and abandoned him. His task was complete. He'd confessed his crime, and his victory, over what had to have been the biggest opponent in the castle. He did not fear the Schemer, for he now held the deadliest secret of all over skekTah's head. The other's life was effectively in his hands.

skekTah couldn't hurt him now.

.o.o.o.o.

"Hmmmmmm. You look rather shaken, Schemer."

skekTah was broken from his daze. He had no clue how long he'd been in this corridor, shaking, frightened, mind churning over his fate. The Chamberlain stood before him, curiosity on his face. There was no hint of malice.

 _Not yet,_ he reminded himself. There was always a hint of malice in skekSil's features, somewhere. It just wasn't always immediately visible.

"I'm fine," skekTah hissed coldly, spines bristling beneath his carapace.

"Hmmmmmmm." skekSil nodded. "The Emperor has called for you. He wishes to…chat."

Chat? With the Emperor? Oh no…

Had skekUng sold him out already? He hadn't even done anything yet!

"I must not have heard. I will go to him immediately," the Schemer stated, trying to figure out where exactly he was in the mental map of the castle he had stored away in his mind.

"Hmmmmmmm."

skekTah, unable to discern where he was and desperately wishing to get away from the nosy Chamberlain, moved past skekSil and exited the way he guessed the other to have come in. He accepted the fact that he was late for such a meeting and will be even later getting there. He would apologize and grovel and pray that skekUng had kept his word about not selling him out.

.o.o.o.o.

"There you are, Schemer! You're late!" the Emperor hissed.

skekTah shuffled into the throne room, head bowed as low as he could get it without compromising his balance or forward momentum. He stopped before the throne, not daring to meet the other's gaze, and gave his excuse. The Emperor waved it away without care.

"I require a…counsel, of sorts. As the Collector's closest ally, I decided you would do for this matter," Emperor skekSo declared.

A counsel? Perhaps…had the Emperor, in his paranoia, seen through skekUng's story too?

"The Gelfling," the Emperor said. "Are they really capable of killing the Collector? Did they perform this crime, Schemer? Do not lie. I want honesty from you."

There was viciousness in his tone, sharp as a blade. Beneath it was bitterness. The Emperor had held the Collector is such high regard for over a hundred trine. To lose him now was a massive blow, no doubt.

skekTah shuffled his stance awkwardly but made no outward movement. The Emperor was frustrated, enraged. The last thing he wanted was to set their ruler off by mistake. He needed to pick his answer carefully.

 _"_ _Tell on me and I'll ensure you are dragged down with me."_

He could not sell skekUng out. The explanation would be too long. Though he held the bare minimum of favor with the Emperor, it would not be enough to safely accuse the other without endangering himself. The Emperor believed the Garthim Master's lie. He would believe what skekUng told him about the essence theft.

But the Emperor demanded honesty out of him. To lie about the fate of the favorite would be a crime. To lie in general, though a frequent habit of all Skeksis, was a crime, especially if done to the Emperor. If he was caught in such a lie, his life would surely be over.

No matter what choice he made, his fate was sealed. skekUng held all of the cards. skekTah was just the poor scapegoat, the sacrificial lamb.

 _"_ _I'll trust you to make the right decision."_

There was only one option. It would need to suffice. He internally apologized to skekLach and spoke.

"It was indeed Gelfling, sire. There can be no other aggressor. With the prophecy in place, the Gelfling have proven to be willing to do anything to destroy our existence," skekTah confirmed. "They…killed skekMal, skekSa, and skekVar…if you require reminding. They could surely kill the Collector, brave and cautious as he was."

The Emperor's expression contorted and for a moment, skekTah feared he had said the wrong thing.

"They did," the Emperor hissed, claws digging into his throne. "They did… Those Gelfling… They did…"

"S…sire?" skekTah choked in concern.

Was the Emperor having a fit? Should he fetch skekTek?

On second thought, no. He didn't want to get near the Scientist. He wouldn't do it, not even for the Emperor.

"skekTah, I want you to fetch skekOk for me. Bring him here. I have a new law to put into place," the Emperor said, breaking off from his snarling.

skekTah moved swiftly, racing to the library. The Scroll-Keeper yelped as he was torn from his writings and pulled to the throne room. His complaints died when he saw the Emperor rise.

"What did I do? I did nothing, Schemer!" skekOk hissed in panic.

"Shut your beak and start writing. The Emperor has a new law to enact," skekTah advised, stepping away from the only Skeksis smaller than himself.

skekOk shakily removed an empty scroll and a quill from the deep pockets of his robes and readied himself to write when prompted. Once the Emperor saw that the Scroll-Keeper was ready, he spoke in that voice that made every Skeksis cower inside.

"As of today, I order not just the slaughter of every Gelfling outside of these walls…but a culling of the ones within as well! I want every Gelfling dead. I will not risk even a drained slave to regain its sense and attempt to end our rule! I give the Garthim Master, skekUng, exclusive command over the Garthim as he once did two hundred trine ago before the prophecy was set in stone. He will now be tasked with the destruction of every Gelfling. This, I decree as eternal law!"

skekTah's jaw dropped. A culling…of every Gelfling? Was the Emperor serious?

What about the essence they so depended on? The plan had been for the Scientist to craft a chamber in the castle depths to keep a small number alive, a breeding colony perhaps, for essence purposes. That way, an essence shortage would be no problem. Was that plan being abandoned?

skekOk seemed to be thinking the same thing as he wrote. They made eye contact briefly. The answer was clear.

The Emperor had finally cracked.

With the loss of the Gelfling, the only real way to secure their power was to survive for the next two hundred and fifty trine to the Great Conjunction. If they could live until then, they would be revitalized and their reign would be supreme once again. Eternal life would be within their grasp.

Or so skekTek predicted.

Neither dared to bring up the original plan with the Emperor. Perhaps it had been forgotten in the aftermath of the favorite's death. Nobody really knew.

When skekOk finished writing and the ink had dried, the scroll was rolled up and handed to the Schemer. The Emperor ordered him to deliver it to the Garthim Master immediately. There was to be no delay in this slaughter.

Finding the Garthim Master was not difficult. As if knowing he had been summoned—or perhaps he had known that this would be the end result of his lie—he and his alliance were gathered close by. skekTek hissed and the Slave-Master sneered when the Schemer approached them. Only a brief wave of skekUng's hand silenced them.

"Orders from the Emperor, to be attended to immediately. This supersedes all else," skekTah reported numbly, holding out the scroll.

skekUng snatched the scroll and opened it. All three looked at it. skekUng bellowed in laughter as he rolled the scroll up, thrusting it back into the Schemer's hands.

"Yes! Yeeeeees!" he roared in victory. "It is time! skekNa, the slaves! Gather them! It is time!"

skekNa grinned crookedly and went away, no doubt to gather every Gelfling slave they had. A mass execution would occur, if skekTah guessed correctly. skekNa would enjoy that immensely.

The Schemer quickly made himself scarce, trying to ignore the ache in his back. He thought he saw the Scientist watch him but he could not be sure. There would be no more trusting of the other now, not after this. It could not be done.

skekTah would indulge in mintvine and perhaps try to locate his herbs by himself. Though past memories of such ventures haunted him, it would need to be done. He could not trust the Scientist not to poison him after the past trine of abuse. He would need to care for his back by himself.

…No. It wouldn't just be his back.

He would need to entirely care for himself. There were no more allies, not for him. They were all gone.

He could not—no, he would not—rely on anyone else now. It was just too painful. Even skekLach, no longer friend but a useful guardian, had caused pain when he died. The Schemer simply grew too attached to his allies for him to try again.

So he would stay alone, unattached. His loyalty would lay solely with the Emperor. No other creature, Skeksis or otherwise, would hold sway over him.

This would carry on for two hundred trine before loneliness won and he indulged again in the poison that he called…alliances.


	27. Comfort

Lately, I've been very stressed from finals, graduation planning, and how life will pan out for me past college. Overall, I've been endlessly stressing to the point where I've been feeling ill all break. Even Thanksgiving was partially miserable because of it. It's gotten better now that I've got a rough plan thanks to my mother and a few school guides, but I'm still a bit worried.

So I've decided to force myself to make my own piece of happiness—writing some fluffy TahHak stuff! Because this is now a thing…

Comfort

This had to be the most horrible day that skekTah had ever had.

First he'd been woken up far too early by skekNa and skekEkt bickering outside of his door over some frivolous matter involving clothes. He missed breakfast and lunch thanks to various projects he was dragged in on unwillingly by various alliances in the castle that required his elegant writing skills, as skekOk was too busy doing historical documenting for the Emperor to be bothered with such affairs. The Note-Taker had been forced to serve as a secondary judge for the Gelfling choir, as per skekZok's order. Dinner was accompanied by a celebration in honor of skekVar and a returning group of guards who had driven away a pack of marauding rakkida that had gotten too close to the castle, where skekTah had to effectively babysit a drunken skekLach until the big oaf passed out and had to be hauled away to bed.

Overall, skekTah had had a very bad day. One he never wanted to repeat again.

Sadly, this was the life he lived as one of the seventeen opulent lords of the Castle of the Crystal, guardian to the Great Crystal, heart of Thra itself.

skekTah frankly just felt overworked, tired, and miserable. The life of a lord was not what he had imagined or what it had once been in their early trine of taking the castle for themselves. Now it was a constant stream of work, either for his fellow lords or for the Gelfling that they protected.

skekTah really just wanted to drop on his bed, go to sleep, and never wake up. That sounded better than his current position in life.

"—ay, skekTah?"

"What?"

The Note-Taker snapped to attention, realizing he was being spoken to. He turned, having reached his bedroom door, to face skekHak the Machinist.

"I asked if you were okay," skekHak repeated, concerned.

"I'm just tired. It's been a long day," skekTah muttered, looking back at his door. "I think I'll turn in early. Good night."

skekTah shuffled into his room and closed the door behind him. With a sharp clunk, he locked it behind himself. Heavy feet guided him to bed and heavier eyelids fell shut once he collapsed atop his bed. He did not bother crawling under the covers.

He could sleep on top of them. That was fine.

.o.o.o.o.

Turn in early?

It was hardly early, in skekHak's opinion. The sky was already borderline pitch black, stars peering through the darkness and the sister moons showing their glowing faces. It most certainly was not early.

No, it was very late.

Yet the festivities in the grounds below and in the banquet hall were still going strong.

Not that skekHak would know. He was not invited to such events.

As far as everyone but his brethren knew, he did not exist. There was no Machinist, no eighteenth Skeksis Lord, just as skekYi did not exist in any records at all. Nobody but Aughra and Raunip knew of them, and both had long since disappeared, taking that knowledge with them.

Even if he had been invited, even if he was known and recognized on Thra, skekHak had no desire to attend. The noise made his head hurt and it was too bright for him. He was used to the dank and gloom of the castle's underbelly, where he lived and worked in solitude.

No, skekHak would not attend, but he knew exactly what was going on anyway. He could hear it, smell it. If he peered out a window, he could probably see it too.

But he did not.

He was here for one thing—skekTah.

And skekTah did not seem interested in speaking with him. Or anyone at all.

skekTah did not look in any condition to be up and about. He looked as if he were half-asleep, he was so worn down. The Note-Taker had told him of all the tasks he was frequently assigned. The Machinist knew how much his friend had to do daily.

In skekHak's opinion, the Emperor put too much pressure on skekTah, was assigning him too many things. skekTah, though clever and quick, was only one Skeksis. He did not have the strength of skekGra or the social conduct of skekSil. There was only so much the Note-Taker could do all at once, only so many jobs he could perform without dropping the ball on something. At this rate, skekTah wouldn't last long before he crashed.

The Machinist frowned. skekTah was clever, but he tended to ignore his own health or safety in favor of others'. skekTah likely knew that he was hitting his limit but persisted in his job anyway.

Perhaps it was time for an intervention.

.o.o.o.o.

skekAyuk kept a firm eye on the pot as he moved about the kitchen. He didn't want it to bubble over or burn. No, not this particular dish. The ingredients had been a chore to obtain and he'd only get one shot to get this right. He wanted to get it right. He needed to. His chef's honor would not tolerate such a failure with such rare ingredients.

No, this was a dish that would be carefully put together and served. This was a dish that would greet the Emperor in less than an hour once it had finished cooking, had cooled, and was properly spiced and garnished and decorated to the levels of visual appeal that the Gourmand strived to achieve with every meal he created.

Because he never used the same menu twice. He only had one chance to get it right.

And get it right, he would, by Thra!

Checking over the candied fruits he'd finished glazing with a delicate but sweet sauce, he nearly sent the bowl crashing to the floor when he noted someone at the door that was not Gelfling-sized. Thankfully, he managed to rework his arm position and miss the bowl of carefully prepared fruit. Spinning to face the intruder, his chubby face scrunched and he hissed in a bid to look more intimidating than his portly visage showed.

"Oh, snap your beak shut, skekAyuk. It's me," skekHak hissed back.

The Gourmand settled immediately. He was not threatened at all by the Machinist, who stood a head and a half taller than him. skekHak held no political sway or power. Even if he did, skekAyuk still would not be afraid. skekHak held no quarrel with anyone and for good reason.

Every tiny bit of metallic decoration, every mechanical appliance, every bit of cookware, every piece of armor, and every weapon—from skekZok's ritualistic knife to skekVar's elegant sword—came from skekHak's forge. Second to the Emperor, skekHak was very important for a Skeksis that only the Lords of the Crystal Castle knew the existence of. And skekHak did not disappoint. He completed every task and project set before him with efficiency and excellence. Nothing ugly had come from his forge.

skekHak was a peaceful Skeksis, for the most part. He had no quarrel with anyone. Everyone in the castle needed his services. He provided what they asked for without complaint.

That's not to say that skekAyuk was comfortable with the Machinist's sudden appearance. He was on upper castle grounds, in a public area. If someone came in and saw him…

"What do you want, skekHak? I'm busy!" skekAyuk asked, checking the pot again and eyeing the door with sudden anxiety.

"I'll keep it brief," skekHak said. "I need a favor."

"Another time. I'm busy," skekAyuk requested, inwardly hoping that the other would get the hint and leave.

If anyone saw the Machinist, it could mean trouble. skekHak stuck out in his tightly-fit, earth-colored robes. He did not look like any of the others, with their dressy robes and fancy baubles. skekHak kept it simple for his own safety, for catching fire at the forge in the name of fashion would be an incredible loss to the castle court. Among the rest of the lords, with perhaps the rebellious skekMal as the only other exception, skekHak stuck out like a sore thumb.

A sharp metallic clang made the Gourmand stumble, tripping over the edge of his robe. He spun back to the Machinist, a bitter scolding on his tongue…and fell silent when he saw the gleaming pot on the counter.

skekHak withdrew and watched.

Two weeks ago, skekNa had tried his hand at cooking and wound up destroying a majority of the pots. skekHak had been meaning to finish forging the rest but had been swamped under weapon orders by skekVar. With the rakkida roaming so close to home, skekAyuk's pots had been put on the backburner while the Machinist relentlessly forged weapon after weapon at the General's command.

With the rakkida now dealt with, the Machinist could return to this project. And what a perfect time to do so.

"I require a favor, skekAyuk," skekHak stated again. "I have half of your pots forged. The rest of this batch is in my quarters downstairs. The remaining pots will be forged tomorrow morning and delivered to you before nightfall."

skekAyuk had been running low on pots to cook in without constantly doubling back to wash what he had already used. He only had ten pots of his original forty, thanks to skekNa's idiocy. skekHak had fifteen pots in his possession right now…

"I'm listening," the Gourmand said.

.o.o.o.o.

skekTah groaned, rolling over. Why hadn't he drawn his curtains last night? The light of the suns streamed in his window, landing right on his face. It burned and was bright and it hurt!

The Note-Taker begrudgingly rose from bed, rubbing his eyes to try and clear the spots from them. His head was pounding.

…No, it wasn't his head. Someone was knocking on the door.

"Go away! It's too early!" he snarled.

"It's of immediate importance, my lord. That's what I was told."

skekTah groaned. He hated the phrase 'of immediate importance'. Half the time, it was a ploy to make him rise early to get work done. This was likely just another sham.

But if it was legitimate…

skekTah stalked to the door, unlocked it, and flung it open. He probably looked haggard, having not neatened his hair or smoothed the creases in his robes. The Gelfling guard standing at his door certainly looked startled before holding out a folded piece of ragged-looking parchment. skekTah snatched it before shooing the Gelfling away. He withdrew back into his room and shut the door quickly.

It wasn't a sham or a summons. Those would come in scrolls, usually acquired from skekOk. No, there was only one Skeksis he could name that used scraps of torn parchment like this to send messages.

skekHak.

He opened it and read. The message was short, as skekHak did not bother to write letters. Short and to the point was skekHak's style.

skekHak was requesting a meeting in his quarters, just between the two of them, as soon as he was able.

skekTah folded the note and stowed it between the pages of his note-keeping book. Once it was secured to the strap at his waist, the Note-Taker left his quarters and began the long trek to the far side of the castle, where the stairs leading to the catacombs and castle caverns were located. It was guarded constantly to prevent anyone from wandering down there and discovering the Machinist by accident.

Brushing the guards aside, skekTah headed down the stairs until he reached the bottom. It was a long trek but the Note-Taker didn't mind the exercise. It was better than being hunched over for hours on end, writing long texts for some of his more pompous fellows.

skekTah was greeted at the bottom by a short tunnel that led to an ornate iron door. Behind this door lay skekHak's chambers, cut off from the rest of the castle, much like the Machinist's existence had been.

That was always a sore point to think about for skekTah. As far as the world knew, skekHak did not exist. Yet he provided all of the tools and weapons and metallic goods that made the lives of the Skeksis Lords so grand. These same goods enriched the lives of the Gelfling and Podlings out in the wilds of Thra. skekHak had single-handedly provided everything needed for their lives to be as rich and beautiful as they were.

Yet skekHak was stuck down in this dark place, hidden from the sun and all eyes, bar the Skeksis. The Machinist so rarely went upstairs. The suns were too bright, the chatter too loud, and the world too big. skekHak was content to hide down here in this tiny, dark cell of stone and metal.

For a cell was what it basically was. skekHak was practically imprisoned down here. Nobody could possibly tell skekTah otherwise of this.

Worst of all, skekHak did not mind. He liked his underground quarters. He did not fight to move upstairs or reveal his existence.

skekHak simply sat back, accepted his place, and did his job.

It was enough to drive the Note-Taker mad.

It was unfair! skekHak was practically used for slave labor, though he was highly respected among them. Nobody would dare lift a finger to harm the Machinist lest the Emperor launch an attack upon the offender. skekHak was much too prized to be targeted by anyone within the castle for any conceivable reason.

skekTah sighed. As much as he protested, it meant nothing. skekHak would merely shake his head and say that he was happy where he was.

The Machinist enjoyed his dark little underground space. There was nobody to bother him and he was free to pursue his craft however he pleased. Out of the whole castle, he had the most freedom. What did he have to complain about?

The Note-Taker shook his head. He was over thinking again. He did that too often nowadays. skekHak said it was from stress. If he kept it up, he really would drive himself mad.

He lifted a hand and knocked thrice on the door. It opened and the goggle-wearing Machinist stuck his soot-covered beak out. The smell of smoke and melting metal hit skekTah's nostrils like a slap to the face. How skekHak could stand being trapped in such a poorly ventilated space with such strong smells, the Note-Taker would never understand.

"You sent a note?" skekTah asked.

"Yes, come in," skekHak confirmed, withdrawing back into the dimness of his quarters.

The door was opened the rest of the way, revealing the grand expanse of space carved into the stone beneath the castle.

There were no windows, for they were too deeply beneath the castle for the suns to ever hope to reach. Long tables crowded a third of the room and shelves on the wall displayed recently forged tools and weapons. Another third of the room contained the forge, melting cauldron, and other large, loud, hot mechanical necessities for the Machinist to perform his job correctly. The last third of the room, furthest from the door in a corner, lay a cot covered in tangled blankets, a small bookcase stuffed with old books stained with oil and soot, and a small table that bore a candle stand and a dirty plate that skekHak had yet to take upstairs to wash from breakfast.

skekHak required little in terms of essentials.

He did not eat with the rest of the court, taking his meals via special Podling delivery to his quarters from the kitchens. These Podlings served directly under skekAyuk, who monitored them critically. They were the only living creatures beyond the Skeksis, Aughra, and Raunip that knew of the Machinist's existence. There were only four of them and skekTah had no doubt that they would be swiftly eliminated if even one of them let slip a hint about skekHak's existence to anyone outside of the court.

skekHak read little for recreation. Most of his books were manuals or instructions gained from knowledge he'd retained from his urSkek days, all painstakingly recorded in the early days after the division. All but one was dedicated to mechanical creations of one kind or another. The odd book out was a small red book that contained poems that a Gelfling had given HakHom long ago. For some reason, the Machinist refused to part with it after all this time.

skekTah did not question it. skekHak could do as he pleased. Keeping a book of Gelfling poetry was not a crime. There was no need to bring it up.

"What did you need?" skekTah asked.

"You've been working too hard," the Machinist stated, carefully lifting his goggles to display his squinted orange eyes. "You need a break."

"As if anyone in this castle knows what that is for one such as I, skekHak," skekTah said.

"You need a break. I'm giving you one."

"You summoned me down here to do nothing?" skekTah asked.

"No." The Machinist shook his head, turning to a table covered in a thick—and surprisingly clean—cloth. "I called you down here to have a break."

He reached out to grab the cloth in his long fingers and yanked it away with a flourish. Beneath were plates and bowls of sweet snack food and mintvine. There was even a bottle of sweet water, for the Machinist would never drink wine and knew it was not a favored drink of the Note-Taker's either. skekHak looked up at skekTah, whose beak dropped in shock.

"skekAyuk made these…after I offered to finish forging the pots that skekNa ruined before," skekHak explained. "He doesn't know why I wanted this. Probably doesn't care either. He has half of the pots he needed and he'll get the rest tonight. He should be happy."

"You had this made…for me?" skekTah asked, confused.

"You need a break," the Machinist said firmly. "I suggest you take advantage of this. You haven't been eating. You'll get sick."

"…Why?"

skekHak looked at his door and frowned deeply. "I'll talk to the Emperor. He'll listen to me. I'll make him stop overworking you."

"Why, skekHak?" skekTah demanded. "Why are you…being so kind?"

skekHak sighed. "You were kind to me. I am kind to you. We are…friends…are we not?"

Friends. That was a Gelfling term. Though skekTah had thought it of their relationship many times before, he's never said it aloud.

"…Are we?" skekTah asked.

"If that is what Gelfling call it, then we must be," skekHak shrugged. "Eat, skekTah. Rest and relax. Nobody will come for you here."

Somehow, skekTah felt relieved. skekHak, brave skekHak with his injured head and his untouchable status, had reached out for the Note-Taker and confirmed their alliance…their friendship. skekTah felt comfortable, safe even, in this room. Though the dark had scared him, it was suddenly familiar and comforting now.

"Want to share?" skekTah offered. "Who knows what skekAyuk has been feeding you behind our backs."

"He's fed me well…but if you don't mind, I think I shall," skekHak admitted before carefully indulging in the sweet buffet before them.

skekTah smiled before munching on some mintvine. Yes, he felt comfortable here. There was no stress or pressure in this room. He was safe as could be.

He trusted skekHak to keep his word.

After that blissful morning, the Emperor indeed seemed to cut back significantly on the Note-Taker's workload. He wasn't dragged aside or prevented from taking meals. His stress and anxiety reduced dramatically.

skekTah would need to think of how to properly thank the Machinist one day.


	28. Hug

Because this dumb idea was too cute to pass up. You can't say this wouldn't be a plausible scenario, with how disconnected from our worldly customs that the Skeksis are.

More of the TahHak fluff train! Enjoy!

Hug

"Do you know what a hug is?"

skekHak paused, having drenched a red-hot blade into a bucket of water to cool it and keep its shape. Setting the knife and the tongs on his workbench, he turned to look at his companion. Behind the goggles was a baffled expression.

"A what?" he asked.

"A hug," skekTah the Note-Taker repeated, hands wringing in front of him. "Do you know what one is?"

"…I'm assuming it's a Gelfling thing," the Machinist said.

"Well, it could be," skekTah shrugged. "I saw Podlings do it during the last banquet. They seemed to enjoy it."

"And this…hug…entails what?" skekHak asked, curiosity nipping at him.

"Well, it involves two people. They wrap arms around one another and just stand there for a bit. Then they pull away and they're…happy?" skekTah explained, though it sounded rather questioning.

"…You want to try it, don't you?" skekHak guessed.

"…Maybe," the Note-Taker replied sheepishly, looking away.

skekHak sighed. He honestly wished that the shorter Skeksis would be a bit more assertive with his desires. There was only so much you could get if you pined and dropped hints and waited. If skekTah would just come out and say it, he'd probably achieve so much more than he normally did.

But skekTah was so very skittish and antisocial and withdrawn. It was hard to get him to do much of anything for himself.

That was why skekHak was there, though.

"All right, get up," skekHak said with a dramatic shake of his head. "Let's try this…hug thing."

The Machinist could almost see the childlike glimmer in the Note-Taker's eyes, practically feel the youthful spring in his step as skekTah hopped out of his chair and scurried over to the taller, older Skeksis. skekHak held his arms out, hoping he was doing this hug right. He'd never witnessed this strange activity before, so he was relying on skekTah to guide him.

"Okay, wrap your arms around me, like what I'm doing to you," skekTah explained, embracing his friend.

skekHak mimicked the gesture, long arms securely wrapping around skekTah's back. He could feel the body heat of his companion, who was pressed flush against his chest. If he listened hard enough, he could swear that he could hear skekTah's heart beating against his own chest. It was rather eerie…and intimate…

They stood there for several minutes in the middle of skekHak's chambers, engaging in this mysterious act of hugging.

"…I don't get it? I just feel warm," skekHak said finally.

"So do I," skekTah muttered, obviously disappointed.

The Machinist frowned. Clearly skekTah had had high hopes for this hugging thing. It hurt him to have let the Note-Taker down.

"Well…it didn't feel bad," he offered.

"You're right. It didn't," skekTah admitted. "Maybe it's just a Podling thing?"

"Perhaps," skekHak shrugged. "At least one can't say we didn't try it."

"…Maybe we could do it again? Just in case we didn't do it long enough," skekTah rationalized quickly.

"If you say so," skekHak consented.

skekHak didn't argue. He didn't want to. Maybe the hug wasn't working the way it did with Podlings. Maybe it was and they just couldn't see it.

But it made skekTah happy, so skekHak would do it.


End file.
